[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 77 (Tuesday, April 22, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19573-19575]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-10407]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-5814-6]
Notice of Public Meeting on the Sector Facilities Indexing
Project
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.
ACTION: The Enviromental Protection Agency will hold a public meeting
to take public comments and suggestions on the methodology used to
measure and display the environmental performance and records of
individual facilities in context of the Sector Facility Indexing
Project (SFIP).
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a
public meeting on Wednesday, May 14, 1997 in Alexandria, VA, to hear
presentations and statements from a cross-section of stakeholders on
facility profiling methodologies used within the Sector Facility
Indexing Project.
Any and all stakeholders (e.g., individuals, or representatives of
organizations, governments, or academia) are invited to attend as
members of the audience, or to submit written comments to the OPPT
Docket Clerk (see ADDRESSES section below). There also will be an
opportunity for individuals to make brief oral presentations. Please
note that the number of presenters, as well as time allotted, may be
limited. If you wish to make a presentation, please request a Fax
Registration Form by calling (617) 520-3015.
DATES: The meeting will take place on May 14, 1997, beginning promptly
at 8:30 a.m. and continuing until 6:00 p.m.
ADDRESSES: The public meeting will take place at the Holiday Inn Hotel
and Suites, 625 First Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 (703-548-6300).
Written comments should be submitted in triplicate to: US Environmental
Protection Agency, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, OPPT
Docket Clerk, Mail Code 7407, 401 M Street, SW., Washington, DC 20460,
and reference administrative record 178. The docket will not
accommodate confidential business information. Comments and data may
also be submitted electronically by sending electronic mail (e-mail)
to: oppt.ncic@epamail.epa.gov. Electronic comments must be submitted as
an ASCII file avoiding the use of special characters and any form of
encryption. Comments and data will also be accepted on disks in
WordPerfect in 5.1 format of ASCII file format. All comments and data
in electronic form must be identified by the administrative record
number.
A record has been established for the SFIP under administrative
record 178 (including comments and data submitted electronically as
described below). A public version of this record, including printed,
paper versions of electronic comments, is available for inspection from
noon to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The
public record is located in the TSCA Nonconfidential Information
Center, Rm. NE-B607, 401 M St.,SW., Washington, DC 20460. The official
record for the SFIP as described above will be kept in paper form.
Accordingly, EPA will transfer all comments received electronically
into printed, paper form as they are received and will place the paper
copies in the official record which will also include all comments
submitted directly in writing. The official record is the paper record
maintained at the address in ADDRESSES above.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Maria DiBiase Eisemann, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Compliance, 401 M Street,
S.W. (2223-A), Washington, D.C., 20460; telephone: (202) 564-7016, fax:
(202) 564-0050; e-mail: eisemann.maria@epamail.epa.gov. Supplemental
documents relating to the project and the public meeting will be posted
at the following Internet address: http://www.epa.gov/envirosense/oeca/
metd/sfi.html
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Sector Facility Indexing Project (SFIP) is a community-right-
to-know
[[Page 19574]]
and data integration pilot project that provides environmental
performance data for facilities within five industrial sectors. The
industrial sectors profiled within the SFIP are automobile assembly,
petroleum refining, pulp mills, iron and steel, and primary nonferrous
metal production (aluminum, copper, lead and zinc). The SFIP is part of
an overall EPA Reinvention initiative to improve data integration,
public access to information, and methods for examining risk factors.
This initiative brings together existing data from a wide range of
databases to allow the user to view facility-specific environmental
information in one place. The ultimate goal of the SFIP is to publish
information regarding each profiled facility, and provide a publicly
accessible database of current information which would allow for
customized data searches. The purpose of the public meeting is to take
comment on the methodology used within the SFIP, and determine how it
can be improved using available information, methodologies, and
measures.
EPA has traditionally stored information regarding facility-level
environmental records in separate databases that relate to individual
statutes and programs. To a large extent, comprehensive facility-level
records that cut across multiple programs are not available. The Sector
Facility Indexing Project (SFIP) consolidates this information in a way
that makes it easier to make cross-program comparisons and connections.
For example, the project allows users to examine the compliance records
of facilities under air, water, and solid/hazardous waste regulations.
In the past, interested users could not access this cross-program
information without examining each database separately. The information
contained within the SFIP is organized by industrial category to allow
comparisons across facilities that manufacture similar products.
The performance measures used in the project are related to the
following categories--production or capacity of the facility,
compliance and enforcement history, chemical release data, toxicity of
chemicals released, and population/demographic statistics of the
surrounding area. The project encompasses raw data directly from public
data sources, and statistical data that provides information aggregated
directly from the raw data. This ``layered'' approach allows the user
to examine both comparative statistics, and actual raw data relating to
the events that have occurred or indicators that are measured. The
methodology used to measure the categories examined under the SFIP are
contained in supplemental documents that are available from the
following Internet site (http://www.epa.gov/envirosense/oeca/metd/
sfi.html) or upon request from the EPA contact listed above. EPA
recommends that commenters review this background documentation to
better understand the methodologies used within the project.
The SFIP does not create new policies or definitions, but uses
existing information. To the extent that these definitions and
associated data elements are refined, changed, or improved through
other processes, SFIP will make use of the most current and best
information available. SFIP uses existing data, but the project as a
whole is not a forum for making fundamental changes project as a whole
is not a forum for making fundamental changes to existing data
definitions or reporting requirements. There is another forum, the
National Performance Measures Strategy, which is a stakeholder process
designed to identify and implement an enhanced set of performance
measures for EPA's enforcement and compliance assurance program. While
SFIP is not the vehicle for broader changes to underlying data systems,
the project may help stakeholders understand what is collected now, and
how it can be presented. While future improvements to data collection
and reporting methodologies are important topics, EPA is most
interested in using the public meeting to solicit comments and
suggestions relating to how existing data can be better organized and
presented within the SFIP.
II. Information for Participants
EPA is interested in focusing the public meeting on the questions
presented below in Section III. Speakers may be asked clarifying
questions regarding their presentations by an EPA panel. EPA encourages
speakers to supplement their oral presentations with formal written
comment as time constraints may not allow speakers to address all
issues of interest. Persons wishing to sign-up for a presentation at
the public meeting must pre-register by calling 617-520-3015 and
requesting a meeting registration form. Speakers will be notified of
their time slots once the final format is determined. The meeting is
open to the public as space permits, and a summary of the proceedings
will be prepared and entered into the SFIP docket. EPA also encourages
those unable to attend the public meeting to submit formal written
comments to the docket.
Please note that EPA has developed a separate public review process
through EPA's Science Advisory Board (scheduled for April 29) on the
topic of using toxicity weighting information in conjunction with
Toxics Release Inventory data. Because this issue is being handled
through the SAB process, it is not reflected in the focus topics for
the public meeting. Stakeholders interested in getting more information
or providing comments during the Science Advisory Board process can
refer to the EPA contact, or the SFIP Internet site.
III. Focus Topics for Public Meeting
During the public meeting, EPA is interested in getting public
comment on the following topics and questions.
Category 1--Public Access. How do you or your organization believe
that EPA can best implement projects and policies to improve the
public's ability to access facility-specific environmental data such as
compliance records?
Category 2--Sector Approach. Is it useful for you or your
organization to have the ability to compare facility records across
plants that manufacture similar products (sector-based presentation of
data)?
Category 3--Appropriate Measurement Categories. Are the overall
categories of information presented (compliance, chemical releases,
toxicity, production/capacity, demographics) appropriate for facility-
level profiling, and should other categories be added? Please refer to
supplemental documents for a discussion of methodology used for these
categories.
Category 4--Alternatives. Given that the project is constrained to
currently available information, are there particular facets of the
project that you or your organization think should be improved,
modified or added, and what proposals do you have for these changes?
Category 5--Longer-term Improvements. In the future, as EPA
examines improvements to facility-profiling methodologies, are there
any new categories or measurement techniques that should be considered
that may require changes to existing data collection and management
practices? Please provide details and an indication of whether your
organization is willing to support collection or maintenance of this
information?
Category 6--Public Access Methods. What format or formats are the
most useful to your organization in terms of accessing facility-level
environmental data (e.g., Internet standard reports, Internet
searchable databases, written
[[Page 19575]]
reports and tables, direct access into integrated databases * * *)?
Category 7--Uses of SFIP data. If you or your organization plans to
use the information contained within the project, what are the benefits
of having this information and potential uses for you or your
organization?
Please refer to the EPA contact, or the SFIP web site for
supplemental documents that provide substantive detail on the
methodology used within the project. Some of these documents may not be
immediately available, but will be in place no later than April 28,
1997.
Dated: April 16, 1997.
Elaine G. Stanley,
Director, Office of Compliance.
[FR Doc. 97-10407 Filed 4-21-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-M
