[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 77 (Thursday, April 23, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18573-18575]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-9336]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0352; FRL8786-5]
Second Draft Risk and Exposure Assessment Report for Sulfur
Dioxide (SO2)
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of second draft report for public review and comment.
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SUMMARY: On or about March 19, 2009, the Office of Air Quality Planning
and Standards (OAQPS) of EPA is making available for public review and
comment a draft document titled ``Risk and Exposure Assessment to
Support the Review of the SO2 Primary National Ambient Air
Quality Standards: Second Draft.'' The purpose of this draft document
is to convey the approach taken to assess exposures to ambient
SO2 and to characterize associated health risks, as well as
to present the results of those assessments.
DATES: Comments on the above report must be received on or before May
20, 2009.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
OAR-2007-0352, by one of the following methods:
[[Page 18574]]
http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line
instructions for submitting comments.
E-mail: Comments may be sent by electronic mail (e-mail)
to [email protected], Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-
0352.
Fax: Fax your comments to 202-566-9744, Attention Docket
ID. No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0352.
Mail: Send your comments to: Air and Radiation Docket and
Information Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Mailcode: 2822T,
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460, Attention Docket ID
No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0352.
Hand Delivery or Courier: Deliver your comments to: EPA
Docket Center, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Room 3334, Washington, DC.
Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket's normal hours of
operation, and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of
boxed information.
Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-
2007-0352. The EPA's policy is that all comments received will be
included in the public docket without change and may be made available
online at http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal
information provided, unless the comment includes information claimed
to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information
that you consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site
is an ``anonymous access'' system, which means EPA will not know your
identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of
your comment. If you send an e-mail comment directly to EPA without
going through http://www.regulations.gov, your e-mail address will be
automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is
placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet. If you
submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name
and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any
disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to
technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA
may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid
the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of
any defects or viruses. For additional information about EPA's public
docket visit the EPA Docket Center homepage at http://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy.
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically
in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Air Docket in the
EPA Docket Center, EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW.,
Washington, DC. This Docket Facility is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30
p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The Docket
telephone number is 202-566-1742; fax 202-566-9744.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Michael Stewart, Office of Air
Quality Planning and Standards (Mailcode C504-06), U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; e-mail:
[email protected]; telephone: 919-541-7524; fax: 919-541-0237.
General Information
A. What Should I Consider as I Prepare My Comments for EPA?
1. Submitting CBI. Do not submit this information to EPA through
http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. Clearly mark the part or all of
the information that you claim to be CBI. For CBI information in a disk
or CD-ROM that you mail to EPA, mark the outside of the disk or CD-ROM
as CBI and then identify electronically within the disk or CD-ROM the
specific information that is claimed as CBI. In addition to one
complete version of the comment that includes information claimed as
CBI, a copy of the comment that does not contain the information
claimed as CBI must be submitted for inclusion in the public docket.
Information so marked will not be disclosed except in accordance with
procedures set forth in 40 CFR part 2.
2. Tips for Preparing Your Comments. When submitting comments,
remember to:
Identify the rulemaking by docket number and other
identifying information (subject heading, Federal Register date and
page number).
Follow directions--The agency may ask you to respond to
specific questions or organize comments by referencing a Code of
Federal Regulations (CFR) part or section number.
Explain why you agree or disagree; suggest alternatives
and substitute language for your requested changes.
Describe any assumptions and provide any technical
information and/or data that you used.
If you estimate potential costs or burdens, explain how
you arrived at your estimate in sufficient detail to allow for it to be
reproduced.
Provide specific examples to illustrate your concerns, and
suggest alternatives.
Explain your views as clearly as possible, avoiding the
use of profanity or personal threats.
Make sure to submit your comments by the comment period
deadline identified.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Under section 108(a) of the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Administrator
identifies and lists certain pollutants which ``cause or contribute to
air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public
health or welfare.'' The EPA then issues air quality criteria for
listed pollutants, which are commonly referred to as ``criteria
pollutants.'' The air quality criteria are to ``accurately reflect the
latest scientific knowledge useful in indicating the kind and extent of
all identifiable effects on public health or welfare which may be
expected from the presence of [a] pollutant in the ambient air, in
varying quantities.'' Under section 109 of the CAA, EPA establishes
national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for each listed
pollutant, with the NAAQS based on the air quality criteria. Section
109(d) of the CAA requires periodic review and, if appropriate,
revision of existing air quality criteria. The revised air quality
criteria reflect advances in scientific knowledge on the effects of the
pollutant on public health or welfare. The EPA is also required to
periodically review and revise the NAAQS, if appropriate, based on the
revised criteria.
Air quality criteria have been established for the sulfur oxides
(SOX) and NAAQS have been established for sulfur dioxide
(SO2), an indicator for SOX. Presently, EPA is
reviewing the air quality criteria for SOX and the NAAQS for
SO2. As part of its review of the NAAQS, EPA has prepared an
assessment of exposures and characterization of health risks associated
with ambient SO2. Planned approaches to assessing exposures
and characterizing risks were described in the document, Sulfur Dioxide
Health Assessment Plan: Scope and Methods for Exposure and Risk
Assessment. This planning document was released for public review and
comment in November 2007 and was the subject of a consultation with the
Clean Air
[[Page 18575]]
Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) on December 5 and 6, 2007.
Comments received from that consultation were considered in developing
the ``Risk and Exposure Assessment to Support the Review of the
SO2 Primary National Ambient Air Quality Standards: First
Draft,'' which was released in July 2008.
The second draft document being released at this time conveys the
approach taken to assess exposures to ambient SO2 and to
characterize associated health risks, as well as to present the results
of those assessments. In addition, this document also contains a staff
policy assessment that considers the evidence presented in the final
Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) and the exposure and risk
characterization results presented in this second draft document, as
they relate to the adequacy of the current SO2 NAAQS and any
potential alternative primary SO2 standards. This draft
document will be available online at: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/so2/s_so2_cr_rea.html.
The EPA is soliciting advice and recommendations from the CASAC by
means of a review of the draft document at an upcoming public meeting
of the CASAC scheduled for April 16-17, 2009 in Chapel Hill, NC.
Information about this public meeting will be published as a separate
notice in the Federal Register. Following the CASAC meeting, EPA will
consider comments received from the CASAC and the public in preparing a
final risk and exposure assessment report.
Dated: March 18, 2009.
Stephen D. Page,
Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.
[FR Doc. E9-9336 Filed 4-22-09; 8:45 am]
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