[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 52 (Friday, March 16, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15753-15754]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-6422]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-9648-8]
Request for Nominations of Experts for a Science Advisory Board
Panel To Review EPA's Web-Based Report on the Environment
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office requests
public nominations of technical experts to form an SAB panel to review
the Agency's Web-based Report on the Environment.
DATES: Nominations should be submitted by April 6, 2012 per the
instructions below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Any member of the public wishing further
information regarding this Notice and Request for Nominations may
contact Dr. Thomas Armitage, Designated Federal Officer (DFO), SAB
Staff Office, by telephone/voice mail at (202) 564-2155, by fax at
(202) 565-2098, or via email at armitage.thomas@epa.gov. General
information concerning the EPA SAB can be found at the EPA SAB Web site
at www.epa.gov/sab.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The SAB (42 U.S.C. 4365) is a chartered Federal Advisory Committee
that provides independent scientific and technical peer review, advice,
consultation, and recommendations to the EPA Administrator on the
technical basis for EPA actions. As a Federal Advisory Committee, the
SAB conducts business in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee
Act (FACA) (5 U.S.C. App. 2) and related regulations. The SAB will
comply with the provisions of FACA and all appropriate SAB Staff Office
procedural policies.
EPA's Web-based Report on the Environment (ROE) has been developed
to provide a comprehensive online source of scientific indicators
describing the condition of and trends in the nation's environment and
human health. The ROE indicators are numerical values derived from
actual measurements of human health and ecological condition over
specified geographic areas of the United States. The ROE indicators are
intended to inform strategic planning, priority setting, and decision
making across EPA and provide information for the public on the state
of the environment.
In 2004 and 2007, the SAB reviewed two draft versions of EPA's ROE.
The findings and recommendations of those SAB reviews are available on
the SAB Web site at www.epa.gov/sab (see reports EPA-SAB-05-004 and
EPA-SAB-08-007). The ROE was subsequently published by EPA in 2008, and
in 2009 SAB members provided additional advice on continued development
of future versions of the ROE (see report EPA-SAB-09-017). Since the
2008 publication of the ROE, EPA has maintained and updated the ROE
indicators online at www.epa.gov/roe. EPA is developing a new user-
friendly and interactive Web site to provide improved access to the
data and information in the ROE for a variety of audiences. EPA has
also addressed recommendations from previous SAB reviews in order to
develop a more robust environmental reporting program. Specifically,
EPA has developed: (1) Conceptual frameworks, based on a sustainability
paradigm, to illustrate connections among ROE indicators and Agency
programs, (2) new and revised ROE indicators, including sustainability
indicators that incorporate economic data, and (3) statistical
information to address indicator variability and uncertainty. EPA has
asked the SAB to review the scientific and technical merit of this work
to improve the ROE. In response to EPA's request, the SAB Staff Office
will form an expert panel to conduct the review.
Availability of the Review Materials
SAB review materials will be made available via EPA's Web site and
will consist of a newly designed ROE Web site and accompanying issue
papers. All new ROE developments described above (e.g., conceptual
frameworks, new and revised indicators, and statistical data) will be
presented online rather than in a traditional hard copy report. For
information concerning the ROE, please contact Ms. Madalene Stevens,
National Center for Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and
Development, U.S. EPA, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Mail Code 8601-P,
Washington, DC 20460, phone (703) 347-8655 or at
stevens.madalene@epa.gov.
Request for Nominations
The SAB Staff Office requests nominations of recognized experts
from a wide range of scientific and engineering disciplines with
experience and expertise in: designing environmental and human health
indicators, and evaluating and/or communicating indicator information
and data at regional or national scales. Nominations of experts in
various disciplines are requested including: (a) Environmental
scientists and engineers with knowledge of the sources, fate, and
transport of air pollutants and outdoor and indoor air quality
indicators; (b) aquatic biologists, ecologists, hydrologists, chemists,
oceanographers and microbiologists with expertise in assessing the
condition of surface water, ground water, drinking water, wetlands,
coastal waters, and/or recreational waters; (c) environmental
scientists, ecologists, soil scientists, and environmental engineers
with expertise in the use of indicators (e.g., land cover, land use,
wastes on land, chemicals used on land, and contaminated land) to
assess the condition of land; (d) health scientists (e.g., in the
fields of public health, epidemiology, and risk assessment) with
expertise in assessing human exposure to environmental pollutants,
health risks associated with environmental pollutants, and/or
indicators for assessing human health condition; (e) ecologists with
expertise in the use of indicators to assess the ecological effects of
exposure to pollutants and the condition of whole ecosystems; (f)
statisticians with expertise in analysis of environmental information
to determine the status of and trends in environmental condition; (g)
environmental economists with knowledge of sustainability analysis; (h)
experts from any of the above disciplines with knowledge of
sustainability science and sustainability indicators; and (i)
communication and information scientists with expertise in using and/or
communicating environmental indicator information to inform planning
and decision making.
Process and Deadline for Submitting Nominations
Any interested person or organization may nominate qualified
individuals in the areas of expertise described above for possible
service on this expert panel. Nominations should be submitted in
electronic format (preferred over hard copy) following the instructions
for ``Nominating Experts to Advisory Panels
[[Page 15754]]
and Ad Hoc Committees Being Formed,'' http://www.epa.gov/sab provided
on the SAB Web site. The instructions can be accessed through the
``Nomination of Experts'' link on the blue navigational bar at the SAB
Web site http://www.epa.gov/sab. To receive full consideration,
nominations should include all of the information requested below.
EPA's SAB Staff Office requests contact information about the
person making the nomination; contact information about the nominee;
the disciplinary and specific areas of expertise of the nominee; the
nominee's resume or curriculum vita; sources of recent grant and/or
contract support; and a biographical sketch of the nominee indicating
current position, educational background, research activities, and
recent service on other national advisory committees or national
professional organizations.
Persons having questions about the nomination procedures, or who
are unable to submit nominations through the SAB Web site, should
contact Dr. Thomas Armitage, DFO, as indicated above in this notice.
Nominations should be submitted in time to arrive no later than April
6, 2012. EPA values and welcomes diversity. In an effort to obtain
nominations of diverse candidates, EPA encourages nominations of women
and men of all racial and ethnic groups.
The EPA SAB Staff Office will acknowledge receipt of nominations.
The names and biosketches of qualified nominees identified by
respondents to this Federal Register notice, and additional experts
identified by the SAB Staff, will be posted in a List of Candidates on
the SAB Web site at http://www.epa.gov/sab. Public comments on this
List of Candidates will be accepted for 21 days. The public will be
requested to provide relevant information or other documentation on
nominees that the SAB Staff Office should consider in evaluating
candidates.
For the EPA SAB Staff Office a balanced review panel includes
candidates who possess the necessary domains of knowledge, the relevant
scientific perspectives (which, among other factors, can be influenced
by work history and affiliation), and the collective breadth of
experience to adequately address the charge. In forming this expert
panel, the SAB Staff Office will consider public comments on the List
of Candidates, information provided by the candidates themselves, and
background information independently gathered by the SAB Staff Office.
Selection criteria to be used for panel membership include: (a)
Scientific and/or technical expertise, knowledge, and experience
(primary factors); (b) availability and willingness to serve; (c)
absence of financial conflicts of interest; (d) absence of an
appearance of a lack of impartiality; (e) skills working in committees,
subcommittees and advisory panels; and (f) for the Panel as a whole,
diversity of expertise and viewpoints.
The SAB Staff Office's evaluation of an absence of financial
conflicts of interest will include a review of the ``Confidential
Financial Disclosure Form for Special Government Employees Serving on
Federal Advisory Committees at the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency'' (EPA Form 3110-48). This confidential form allows government
officials to determine whether there is a statutory conflict between a
person's public responsibilities (which include membership on an EPA
federal advisory committee) and private interests and activities, or
the appearance of a lack of impartiality, as defined by federal
regulation. The form may be viewed and downloaded from the following
URL address: http://www.epa.gov/sab/pdf/epaform3110-48.pdf.
The approved policy under which the EPA SAB Office selects
subcommittees and review panels is described in the following document:
Overview of the Panel Formation Process at the Environmental Protection
Agency Science Advisory Board (EPA-SAB-EC-02-010), which is posted on
the SAB Web site at http://www.epa.gov/sab/pdf/ec02010.pdf.
Dated: March 9, 2012.
Thomas H. Brennan,
Deputy Director, EPA Science Advisory Board Staff Office.
[FR Doc. 2012-6422 Filed 3-15-12; 8:45 am]
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