2011-13828. Science Advisory Board Staff Office Request for Additional Nominations for the SAB Environmental Justice Technical Review Panel(s)

AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office is requesting public nominations of additional experts to review the Agency's proposed technical document(s) which consider environmental justice concerns.

DATES:

Nominations should be submitted by June 24, 2011 per instructions below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Any member of the public wishing further information regarding this Notice and Request for Nominations may contact Dr. Suhair Shallal, 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. The SAB is a Federal Advisory Committee chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C., App. 2. The SAB will comply with the provisions of FACA and all appropriate SAB Staff Office procedural policies.

The SAB published a Federal Register notice (Vol. 76, Number 30, Pages 8366-8367) on February 14, 2011 seeking nominations for a SAB panel to review the Agency's environmental justice technical documents. The SAB is now seeking to augment the list of potential candidates to include additional experts to review the Agency's environmental justice screening tool(s).

EPA is developing several tools to help identify communities of potential environmental justice (EJ) concern. These EJ screening tools use a variety of demographic and environmental variables, combined in different ways. EPA has requested that the SAB provide advice on establishing a method for weighting the environmental factors used in these tools.

Request for Nominations: The SAB Staff Office is seeking additional nominations of nationally and internationally recognized experts with experience in the following disciplines: risk assessment (particularly comparative risk and risk ranking); decision analysis; economics and environmental science, specifically in drinking water and groundwater human health effects, particulate matter, ozone and toxic air pollutants (including diesel particulate matter); lead in paint, household dust and other locations, proximity to active and inactive hazardous waste sites, industrial and other facilities; and proximity to highways. Additional experts will be considered along with those currently identified on the list of candidates (see http://yosemite.epa.gov/​sab/​sabproduct.nsf/​02ad90b136fc21ef85256eba00436459/​0F7D1A0D7D15001B8525783000673AC3/​$File/​memo%20and%20bio-%20EJT.pdf).

Availability of the Review Materials: The review materials will be made available on the SAB Web site. For questions concerning the review materials, please contact Bridgid Curry at [phone], or [e-mail].

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” http://www.epa.gov/​sab 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. Suhair Shallal, DFO, as indicated above in this notice. Nominations should be submitted in time to arrive no later than June 24, 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 EJT 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: May 26, 2011.

Anthony F. Maciorowski,

Deputy Director, EPA Science Advisory Board Staff Office.