[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 24 (Friday, February 5, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5794-5795]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-2952]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-6300-2]
Science Advisory Board; Emergency Notification of Public Advisory
Committee Meetings
Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463,
notice is hereby given that one Committee of the Science Advisory Board
(SAB) will meet on the dates and times described below. All times noted
are Eastern Time. The meeting is open to the public, however, seating
is limited and available on a first come basis. Documents that are the
subject of SAB reviews are normally available from the originating U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) office and are not available from
the SAB Office. Public drafts of SAB reports are available to the
Agency and the public from the SAB office. Details on availability are
noted below.
1. Drinking Water Committee (DWC)
The Drinking Water Committee (DWC) of the Science Advisory Board
(SAB) will hold a public meeting beginning at 9:00 am Wednesday,
February 17, 1999 and ending not later than 5:00 pm Thursday, February
18, 1999. The meeting will be held at the Drawbridge Estate hotel, 2477
Royal Drive, Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky, 41017; telephone (606) 341-2800.
At this meeting, the Committee will complete its review of the US EPA
ORD comparative risk framework method (an approach for balancing the
chemical and microbial risks from drinking water) and receive a
briefing on the status of the EPA's water consumption project.
On December 10-11, 1998, the Drinking Water Committee held its
first meeting at which comparative risk framework review was initiated.
At that time, the Agency briefed the Committee on the various
components of the framework and a case study, after which, members and
Agency representatives discussed specific topics. These interactions
are captured in the minutes of the December, 1998 meeting which
includes, as attachments, the written comments of the individual review
panel members. The DWC engaged in a consultation with the Agency on the
water consumption project at its June 18, 1998 meeting.
Background--(a) Comparative Risk Framework Methodology: The Safe
Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requires EPA to provide for the maximum
control of exposures to pathogenic organisms in water while minimizing
concomitant exposures to the disinfection byproducts (DBPs) that might
be generated by control measures. SDWA also requires EPA to conduct
cost-benefit analyses of the regulatory impacts in order to identify
cost-effective drinking water treatment options.
The National Center for Environmental Assessment-Cincinnati Office
(NCEA-Cin) has developed a methodology for risk analysis and comparison
that could help to inform the Agency while it is considering SDWA
regulatory and implementation actions. The Agency's draft document,
Comparative Risk Framework Methodology and Case Study (Framework
Document), presents a method for such comparisons that applies the
prevention-effectiveness approach developed by the Centers for Disease
Control for structuring and analyzing complex risk trade-off problems.
Prevention-effectiveness research combines tools of decision and
economic analysis to look at the cost-effectiveness of different public
health interventions and employs decision trees to explicitly and
graphically structure the problem. The document consists of a
Comparative Risk Framework Methodology (CRFM) and a Case Study. The
application of this approach explicitly recognizes disinfection and
treatment of drinking water to be primary public health intervention
and prevention measures designed to minimize the transmission of
microbial pathogens in drinking water.
Charge--Comparative Risk Framework Methodology: The Drinking Water
Committee was requested to review the strategy proposed for structuring
and analyzing this comparative risk/risk tradeoff problem, including
the overall concept, the use of population-based probabilities for
expressing both cancer and noncancer health risks and mechanisms for
arriving at these numbers, and the pros and cons of the different
common metrics/weights proposed for comparing qualitatively and
quantitatively different health risks. Specific charge questions are
available by contacting the Office of the Science Advisory Board at the
address noted below. Charge questions are included for the following
areas: overall approach; the comparative risk framework methodology;
the case study; engineering and water treatment issues; risk
characterization; microbial risks; chemical dose-response assessment;
exposure; health conditions; the common health metric; the results of
the methods application; and research needs.
(b) Water Consumption Estimates for the United States: EPA is now
developing estimates of water intake for the United States. Included in
the final report will be estimates of water intake (municipal tap and
bottled water) with percentile distributions by age, gender, race,
socioeconomic status, and geographic region and separately for pregnant
and lactating women. The estimates will be derived using a method
developed by EPA which will be applied to data contained in the United
States Department of Agriculture's 1994-1996 Continuing Survey of Food
Intake by Individuals (CSFII). EPA anticipates wide use of the
estimates in future drinking water rule-making activities. This will be
one of two briefings for standing Science Advisory Board committees in
preparation for a formal SAB review of the EPA water consumption report
during the Spring of 1999. The other briefing will occur during the
March
[[Page 5795]]
1999 meeting of the SAB's Integrated Human Exposure Committee.
For Further Information Contact: Single copies of the background
information for the review of the risk comparison framework can be
obtained by contacting Mr. Glenn Rice, US EPA National Center for
Environmental Assessment, 26 Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio
45268; or by telephone at (513) 569-7813. No background documents are
expected to be provided to the Committee for the water consumption
briefing. Additional information for this meeting, or the meeting
agenda, can be obtained by contacting Mr. Thomas O. Miller, Designated
Federal Officer (DFO) for the Drinking Water Committee, Science
Advisory Board (1400), U.S. EPA, 401 M Street, SW, Washington, DC
20460; by telephone at (202) 260-5886; by fax at (202) 260-7118 or via
the E-Mail at: miller.tom@epa.gov, or by contacting Ms. Dorothy Clark
at (202) 260-6555, by fax at (202) 260-7118, and by E-Mail at:
clark.dorothy@epa.gov. Anyone wishing to make an oral presentation to
the Committee must contact Mr. Miller, in writing (by letter, fax, or
E-mail) no later than 12 noon, Thursday, February 11, 1999, in order to
be included on the Agenda. The request should identify the name of the
individual who will make the presentation and an outline of the issues
to be addressed. At least 35 copies of any written comments to the
Committee are to be given to Mr. Miller no later than the time of the
presentation for distribution to the Committee and the interested
public.
Providing Oral or Written Comments at SAB Meetings
The Science Advisory Board expects that public statements presented
at its meetings will not be repetitive of previously submitted oral or
written statements. In general, each individual or group making an oral
presentation will be limited to a total time of ten minutes. For
teleconference meetings, opportunities for oral comment will usually be
limited to no more than three minutes per speaker and no more than
fifteen minutes total. Written comments (at least 35 copies) received
in the SAB Staff Office sufficiently prior to a meeting date (usually
one week before the meeting), may be mailed to the relevant SAB
committee or subcommittee; comments received too close to the meeting
date will normally be provided to the committee at its meeting, or
mailed soon after receipt by the Agency. Written comments may be
provided to the Drinking Water Committee up until the time of the
meeting, however, for this meeting only, delayed comments received up
to 15 days after the meeting will be provided to the Committee for
consideration and will be made part of the permanent Committee record.
Additional information concerning the Science Advisory Board, its
structure, function, and composition, may be found on the SAB Website
(http://www.epa.gov/sab) and in The Annual Report of the Staff Director
which is available from the SAB Publications Staff at (202) 260-4126 or
via fax at (202) 260-1889. Individuals requiring special accommodation
at SAB meetings, including wheelchair access, should contact the
appropriate DFO at least five business days prior to the meeting so
that appropriate arrangements can be made.
Dated: February 3, 1999.
Donald G. Barnes,
Staff Director, Science Advisory Board.
[FR Doc. 99-2952 Filed 2-4-99; 8:45 am]
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