01-16118. Access to Confidential Business Information by Enrollees Under the Senior Environmental Employment Program

AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

EPA has authorized grantee organizations under the Senior Environmental Employment (SEE) Program, and their enrollees; access to information which has been submitted to EPA under the environmental statutes administered by the Agency. Some of this information may be claimed or determined to be confidential business information (CBI).

DATES:

Comments concerning CBI access will be accepted July 2, 2001.

ADDRESSES:

Comments should be submitted to Susan Street, National Program Director, Senior Environmental Employment Program (MC 3650), Environmental Protection Agency, Ariel Rios Building, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Susan Street, National Program Director, Senior Environmental Employment Program (MC 3650), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M St., SW., Washington, DC 20460. Telephone [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The Senior Environmental Employment (SEE) program is authorized by the Environmental Programs Assistance Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-313), which provides that the Administrator may “make grants or enter into cooperative agreements” for the purpose of “providing technical assistance to: Federal, State, and local environmental agencies for projects of pollution prevention, abatement, and control.” Cooperative agreements under the SEE program provide support for many functions in the Agency, including clerical support, staffing hot lines, providing support to Agency enforcement activities, providing library services, compiling data, and support in scientific, engineering, financial, and other areas.

In performing these tasks, grantees and cooperators under the SEE program and their enrollees may have access to potentially all documents submitted under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, to the extent that these statutes allow disclosure of confidential information to authorized representatives of the United States (or to “contractors” under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act). Some of these documents may contain information claimed as confidential.

EPA provides confidential information to enrollees working under the following cooperative agreements:

Cooperative Agreement No.	Organization
	National Caucus and Center on Black Aged, Inc.
CQ-828885	NCBA
CQ-828886	NCBA
CQ-828890	NCBA
CQ-828891	NCBA
	National Association for Hispanic Elderly
CQ-828642	NAHE
CQ-828947	NAHE
	National Asian Pacific Center on Aging
CQ-828749	NAPCA
CQ-828760	NAPCA
CQ-828767	NAPCA
CQ-828861	NAPCA
	National Council On the Aging, Inc.
CQ-828243	NCOA
CQ-828641	NCOA
QS-828795	NCOA
CQ-828944	NCOA
	National Senior Citizens Education and Research Center
QS-828139	NSCERC
CQ-828564	NSCERC
CQ-828664	NSCERC
CQ-828852	NSCERC
CQ-828862	NSCERC
CQ-828863	NSCERC

Among the procedures established by EPA confidentiality regulations for granting access is notification to the submitters of confidential data that SEE grantee organizations and their enrollees will have access. 40 CFR 2.201(h)(2)(iii). This document is intended to fulfill that requirement.

The grantee organizations are required by the cooperative agreements to protect confidential information. SEE enrollees are required to sign confidentiality agreements and to adhere to the same security procedures as Federal employees.

Dated: June 14, 2001.

Donald W. Sadler,

Director, Human Resources Staff #1.