2011-7460. Science Advisory Board Staff Office; Request for Nominations; SAB Mercury Review Panel

AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office provides notice that the SAB will form a panel to conduct an independent review of EPA's Mercury Technical Support Document and is requesting additional public nominations of experts.

DATES:

Nominations should be submitted by April 6, 2011 per instructions below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Any member of the public wishing further information regarding this Notice and Request for Nominations may contact Dr. Angela Nugent, Designated Federal Officer (DFO), SAB Staff Office, by telephone/voice mail at [phone]; by fax at [phone] or via e-mail at [e-mail], General information concerning the EPA Science Advisory Board can be found at the EPA SAB Web site at http://www.epa.gov/​sab.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background: The SAB was established pursuant to the Environmental Research, Development, and Demonstration Authorization Act (ERDAA), codified at 42 U.S.C. 4365, to provide independent scientific and technical advice to the Administrator on the technical basis for Agency positions and regulations. The SAB is a Federal Advisory Committee chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C., App. 2.

On February 28, 2011 (76 FR 10896-10897) the EPA SAB Staff Office published a request for public nominations of experts to serve on a Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) panel to conduct an independent review of EPA's Mercury Technical Support Document. As described in that notice, the SAB Staff Office was responding to an EPA request for peer review of a March 2011 draft risk assessment for mercury, entitled Technical Support Document: National-Scale Mercury Risk Assessment Supporting the Appropriate and Necessary Finding for Coal and Oil-Fired Electric Generating Unit. This technical document was developed to support a proposed rule concerning regulation of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) released from coal-burning electric generating units in the United States (U.S. EGUs) under Section 112(n)(1)(A) of the Clean Air Act (CAA). This regulation may potentially use a Maximally Achievable Control Device (MACT) approach to set a technology-based standard for reducing HAP emissions.

The SAB Staff Office has determined that the SAB, rather than CASAC, will conduct the review. Therefore, the new panel will be formed under the authority of the SAB. Nominations of experts in response to the February 28, 2011 Federal Register Notice will be considered for the new SAB panel and the period for nominations will be extended.

Request for Nominations: The SAB Staff Office is seeking nominations of nationally and internationally recognized experts with research experience and expertise in the following disciplines, particularly related to mercury: atmospheric fate, transport and modeling; aquatic fate, transport and modeling; bioaccumulation; human exposure; epidemiology; toxicology, including reproductive and neurotoxicology, biostatistics, and risk assessment.

EPA contact for background information pertaining to this review: For questions concerning the development of EPA's mercury assessment, on the Web site at http://www.epa.gov/​ttn/​atw/​utility/​pro/​hg_​risk_​tsd_​3-17-11.pdf,, please contact Dr. Zachary Pekar at [phone] or pekar.zachary @epa.gov.

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 ad hoc Panel. Nominations should be submitted in electronic format (which is preferred over hard copy) following the instructions for “Nominating Experts to Advisory Panels and Ad Hoc Committees Being Formed” provided on the SAB Web site. The instructions can be accessed through the “Nomination of Experts” link on the blue navigational bar on the SAB Web site at http://www.epa.gov/​sab. To receive full consideration, nominations should include all of the information requested.

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 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. Angela Nugent, DFO, as indicated above in this notice. Nominations should be submitted in time to arrive no later than April 6, 2011. 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 calendar 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 subcommittee or 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 the SAB Mercury Technical Support Document Review 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; and (e) skills working in committees, subcommittees and advisory panels; and, for the Panel as a whole, (f) 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 that person's public responsibilities (which includes 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 at 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 24, 2011.

Anthony F. Maciorowski,

Deputy Director, EPA Science Advisory Board Staff Office.