[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 126 (Tuesday, July 1, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35495-35496]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-17177]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[OPPTS-400112A; FRL-5729-9]
Ethylene Glycol; Risk Assessment Peer Review; Extension of Public
Comment Period
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of risk assessment peer review; extension of comment
period.
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SUMMARY: In the Federal Register of May 7, 1997, EPA issued a notice of
its ongoing peer review process for evaluating its risk assessments.
Several EPA risk assessments will be submitted for external peer review
including the screening level assessment for ethylene glycol that was
conducted for purposes of section 313 of the Emergency Planning and
Community Right-to-Know Act, 42 U.S.C. 11023. In response to a request,
EPA is extending the comment period by 60 days until September 5, 1997.
The comment period for the notice was scheduled to close on July 7,
1997.
DATES: Comments should be submitted by September 5, 1997.
ADDRESSES: Submitted information should be provided in triplicate to:
OPPT Docket Clerk, TSCA Document Receipt Office (7407), Office of
Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M
St., SW., Rm. G099, Washington, DC 20460, Attention: Docket Control
Number OPPTS-400112.
Comments and data may also be submitted electronically by following
the instructions under Unit III. of this document. No confidential
business information (CBI) should be submitted through e-mail.
Information claimed as confidential must be clearly marked as CBI.
If CBI is claimed, three additional sanitized copies must also be
submitted.
[[Page 35496]]
Nonconfidential versions of information on this notice will be placed
in the public record and will be available for public inspection.
Submitted information should include the docket control number for the
document, OPPTS-400112, and the name of the EPA contact for this
document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Vanessa Vu, Director, Risk Assessment
Division (7403), Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics,
Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M St., SW., Washington, DC 20460,
Telephone: 202-260-1241, e-mail: vu.vanessa@epamail.epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
In response to EPA's Risk Characterization Policy (memorandum of
March 21, 1995 from Carol M. Browner, EPA Administrator) the Agency's
Science Policy Council (SPC) is sponsoring a series of colloquia to
provide internal peer review of several EPA risk assessments as case
studies. After the internal peer review is complete, the SPC plans to
have several of these case studies externally peer reviewed. As part of
this process, EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic
Substances will submit the screening level assessment of ethylene
glycol that was conducted for purposes of section 313 of the Emergency
Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), 42 U.S.C. 11023. This
assessment was published in the Federal Register of May 7, 1997 (62 FR
24925). As part of its announcement of the peer review process, EPA
invited the public to submit any scientific information that may impact
the human health risk assessment of ethylene glycol. EPA is mainly
seeking information directly pertaining to the human health and
exposure analyses in this risk assessment conducted for the purposes of
EPCRA. The notice originally provided that the comment period would
close on July 7, 1997.
II. Extension of Comment Period
On May 29, 1997, EPA received a request from the Chemical
Manufacturers Association (CMA) Ethylene Glycol Panel (Panel) to extend
the comment period for 60 days. In their request, the Panel noted that,
because the May 7 Federal Register notice did not specify the type of
information in which EPA was interested, the original 60-day comment
period was insufficient to thoroughly analyze the risk assessment and
provide the Agency with any additional information for consideration.
EPA has considered CMA's comments and has determined that extending
the comment period is appropriate, and will not cause a significant
delay in the peer review process. Therefore, EPA is extending the
comment period until September 5, 1997.
III. Public Record
The official record for this notice, as well as the public version,
has been established for this document under docket control number
OPPTS-400112 (including comments and data submitted electronically as
described below). A public version of this record, including printed,
paper versions of electronic comments, which does not include any
information claimed as CBI, 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.
Electronic comments can be sent directly to EPA at:
oppt.ncic@epamail.epa.gov
Electronic comments must be submitted as an ASCII file avoiding the
use of any special characters and any form of encryption. Comments and
data will also be accepted on disks in WordPerfect 5.1 file format or
ASCII file format. All comments and data in electronic form must be
identified by the docket control number OPPTS-400112. Electronic
comments on this proposed rule may be filed online at many Federal
Depository Libraries.
List of Subjects
Environmental protection.
Dated: June 24, 1997.
Joseph A. Carra,
Director, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics.
[FR Doc. 97-17177 Filed 6-30-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-F
