[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 73 (Friday, April 16, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19969-19971]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-8761]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-9138-2]
Science Advisory Board Staff Office; Notification of a Public
Meeting of the Advisory Council on Clean Air Compliance Analysis
(Council)
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office announces a
public meeting of the Advisory Council on Clean Air Compliance Analysis
(Council). The Council will conduct quality reviews of three
subcommittee reports and review draft chapters of the EPA Office of Air
and Radiation's Second Section 812 Prospective Analysis of the benefits
and costs of the Clean Air Act.
DATES: The meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 and Wednesday,
May 5, 2010, beginning at 8:30 a.m. and ending no later than 5 p.m.
(Eastern Time), each day.
ADDRESSES: The public meeting will be held in the Science Advisory
Board
[[Page 19970]]
Conference Center, 1025 F Street, NW., Suite 3705, Washington, DC
20004.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Members of the public who wish to
obtain further information about this meeting may contact Ms. Stephanie
Sanzone, Designated Federal Officer (DFO), EPA Science Advisory Board
Staff Office (1400F), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460; by telephone/voice
mail: (202) 343-9697 or at [email protected]. General
information about the Council may be found on the Council Web site at
http://www.epa.gov/advisorycouncilcaa.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background: Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA),
5 U.S.C., App. 2, notice is hereby given that the Advisory Council on
Clean Air Compliance Analysis (Council) will hold a public meeting to
review Council subcommittee draft reports and to review draft EPA
documents prepared for the Second Section 812 Prospective Benefit-Cost
Analysis of the Clean Air Act. The Council was established in 1991
pursuant to the Clean Air Act (CAA) Amendments of 1990 (see 42 U.S.C.
7612) to provide advice, information and recommendations on technical
and economic aspects of analyses and reports EPA prepares on the
impacts of the CAA on the public health, economy, and environment of
the United States. The Council is a Federal Advisory Committee
chartered under FACA. The Council, its subcommittees (Air Quality
Modeling Subcommittee, Health Effects Subcommittee, and Ecological
Effects Subcommittee) comply with the provisions of FACA and all
appropriate SAB Staff Office procedural policies.
Pursuant to Section 812 of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments
(CAAA), EPA conducts periodic studies to assess benefits and costs of
the EPA's regulatory actions under the Clean Air Act. The Council has
provided advice on an EPA retrospective study published in 1997 and an
EPA prospective study completed in 1999. EPA initiated a second
prospective study to evaluate the benefits and costs of EPA Clean Air
programs for years 1990-2020. The Council has previously provided
advice on the analytical blueprint for this study. EPA's Office of Air
and Radiation (OAR) is now nearing completion of the analytical work
for the second prospective study, and has requested the Council's
review of the draft study.
Quality Review: The Council will conduct quality review of three
Council Subcommittee reports prepared in support of the Office of Air
and Radiation's Second Section 812 Prospective Study: (1) Air Quality
Modeling Subcommittee (AQMS) draft report, Review of Air Quality
Modeling for the Second Section 812 Prospective Study of Benefits and
Costs of the Clean Air Act. The AQMS held meetings on February 19 and
March 15, 2010 to review technical documents pertaining to modeling of
air quality for seven emissions scenarios: a 1990 baseline simulation;
and simulations for 2000, 2010 and 2020 with and without the CAAA. The
analyses use the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to
simulate national and regional-scale (western U.S. and eastern U.S.)
concentrations of ozone and fine particulates (PM2.5). The
CMAQ outputs are adjusted using the Modeled Attainment Test Software
(MATS), and projected differences in ambient concentrations are inputs
to the analysis of benefits of the CAAA to human health, welfare, and
the environment. Background information on this advisory activity is
available on the Council Web site at http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/fedrgstr_activites/2nd%20Prospective%20812%20-%20AQMS?OpenDocument; (2) Health Effects Subcommittee (HES) draft
report, Review of EPA's DRAFT Health Benefits of the Second Section 812
Prospective Study of the Clean Air Act. The Subcommittee held meetings
on December 15-16, 2009 and March 2, 2010 to review technical
assessments of health benefits and uncertainty analyses associated with
air quality scenarios, including decreases in ambient ozone and
particulate matter (PM) concentrations. Background information on this
advisory activity is available on the Council Web site at http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/fedrgstr_activites/812%20-%202nd%20Prospective%20-%20Health?OpenDocument; and (3) Ecological
Effects Subcommittee (EES) draft report, Review of Ecological Effects
of Air Pollutants for the Second Section 812 Prospective Study of
Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act. The Subcommittee met on March
9-10, 2010 to review draft materials that characterize ecological
effects associated with decreases in air pollutants, primarily acidic
deposition and tropospheric ozone. The materials included a review of
scientific literature on the ecological effects of air pollutants
regulated by the CAAA, case studies on benefits of the CAAA for
recreational fishing and the timber industry in the Adirondack Region
of New York State, and an estimation of physical benefits of the air
quality scenarios for ozone on agriculture and commercial forestry
productivity. Background information on this advisory activity is
available on the Council Web site at http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/fedrgstr_activites/2nd%20Prospective%20812%20-%20EES?OpenDocument.
Council Review of Draft Section 812 Study. The Council will review
draft chapters from the integrated report, Second Section 812
Prospective Study of the Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act. OAR
is requesting that the Council review (1) the data choices; (2)
methodological choices for analyzing the data; and (3) the overall
validity and utility of the estimated direct costs and benefits of
changes in air quality conditions between the with-CAAA90 and without-
CAAA90 scenarios. Background information on this advisory activity is
available on the Council Web site at http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/fedrgstr_activites/2nd%20Prospective%20812%20Study?OpenDocument.
Technical Contacts: The Office of Air and Radiation technical
contact for the Second Section 812 Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Clean
Air Act is Mr. Jim DeMocker at (202) 564-1673 or [email protected].
Availability of Meeting Materials: Draft EPA documents provided to
the Council are available at http://www.epa.gov/oar/sect812/prospective2.html. The meeting agenda for May 4-5, 2010 and any
background materials, including the draft subcommittee reports, will be
posted on the Council Web site (http://www.epa.gov/advisorycouncilcaa)
prior to the meeting.
Procedures for Providing Public Input: Interested members of the
public may submit relevant written information on the group conducting
the activity or written or oral information for the Council to consider
on the topics of this advisory activity. Oral Statements: In general,
individuals or groups requesting an oral presentation at a public
meeting will be limited to five minutes per speaker, with no more than
one hour for all speakers. Interested parties should contact Ms.
Sanzone at the contact information provided above by April 27, 2010, to
be placed on the public speaker list for the May 4-5, 2010 meeting.
Written Statements: Written statements should be received in the SAB
Staff Office by April 27, 2010, so that the information may be made
available to the Council for their consideration prior to the meeting.
Written statements should be supplied
[[Page 19971]]
to Ms. Sanzone in the following formats: one hard copy with original
signature and one electronic copy via e-mail (acceptable file format:
Adobe Acrobat PDF, MS Word, WordPerfect, MS PowerPoint, or Rich Text
files). Submitters are asked to provide electronic versions of each
document submitted with and without signatures, because the SAB Staff
Office does not publish documents with signatures on its Web sites.
Accessibility: For information on access or services for
individuals with disabilities, please contact Ms. Sanzone at (202) 343-
9697, or via e-mail at [email protected], preferably at least
ten (10) days prior to the meeting, to give EPA as much time as
possible to process your request.
Dated: April 9, 2010.
Vanessa T. Vu,
Director, EPA Science Advisory Board Staff Office.
[FR Doc. 2010-8761 Filed 4-15-10; 8:45 am]
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