96-21283. Science Advisory Board; Notification of Public Advisory Committee Meetings

[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 163 (Wednesday, August 21, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43240-43241]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-21283]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-5558-2]


Science Advisory Board; Notification of Public Advisory Committee 
Meetings

    Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463, 
notice is hereby given that several committees of the Science Advisory 
Board (SAB) will meet on the dates and times described below. All times 
noted are Eastern Daylight Time. Due to limited space, seating at 
meetings will be on a first-come basis. For further information 
concerning specific meetings, please contact the individuals listed 
below. Documents that are the subject of SAB reviews are normally 
available from the originating EPA office and are not available from 
the SAB Office.

1. Risk Reduction Options Subcommittee of the Integrated Risk Project

    The Risk Reduction Options Subcommittee (RROS) of the Science 
Advisory Board's (SAB) Integrated Risk Project will meet Wednesday and 
Thursday, September 11-12, 1996. On Wednesday, the meeting will be held 
in the Administrator's Conference Room (1145 West Tower). On Thursday, 
the meeting will be held in Conference Room 2 South (in the southeast--
``Safeway''--corner of the ground floor of Waterside Mall). Both 
meeting rooms are at EPA's Headquarters at Waterside Mall, 401 M 
Street, SW., Washington, DC.

Purpose of the Meeting

    The main purpose of the meeting is to continue work begun at the 
Subcommittee's first meeting, June 26-27, 1996, which was announced in 
the June 11, 1996 Federal Register, at 61, FR 29561. At the June 
meeting, the Subcommittee heard presentations on seven risk reduction 
options: engineering, communication and education, enforcement, market 
incentives, regulation, international and intergovernmental 
cooperation, and environmental management systems. The Subcommittee 
discussed ranking, metrics, and optimization and formed subgroups on 
stressors, location, and media to gather relevant input, assemble 
option packages, and select likely options for optimizing. This effort 
will prepare the subgroups to test a proposed methodology for 
optimizing risk reduction options and report to the full Subcommittee 
on September 11 or 12. The public meeting on September 11th may be 
postponed or interrupted as necessary to allow the stressor, location, 
and media subgroups to complete their work. The September 12th meeting 
will be a public meeting all day, beginning at 8:30 and ending no later 
than 5:00. The Subcommittee will determine whether this work is 
sufficient to form the basis for a subsequent written report or whether 
additional work is needed.

Availability of Review Materials

    There are no review documents for this effort. Neither the 
Subcommittee nor the subgroups have produced any documents for 
cicrulation to the public in advance of the meeting.

For Further Information

    Agendas and rosters can be obtained from the Subcommitteee 
Secretary, Mrs. Dorothy Clark, Tel. [phone], Fax [phone], 
or via the internet at: [e-mail]. Members of the 
public desiring other information about the meeting may contact Mrs. 
Kathleen Conway, Designated Federal Official, Environmental Engineering 
Committee, Science Advisory Board (1400F), U.S. EPA, 401 M Street, SW., 
Washington, DC 20460; telephone/voice mail at [phone]; fax at 
[phone]; or via the internet at: 
[e-mail].
    Members of the public who wish to make a brief oral presentation to 
the Subcommittee must contact Mrs. Conway in writing (by letter or by 
fax--see previously stated information) no later than 12 noon Eastern 
Time, Wednesday September 4, 1996 in order to be included on the 
agenda. Public comments will be limited to five minutes per speaker or 
organization. The request should identify the name of the individual 
who will make the presentation, the organization (if any) they will 
represent, any requirements for audio visual equipment (e.g., overhead 
projector, 35mm projector, chalkboard, etc.), and at least 35 copies of 
an outline of the issues to be addressed.

2. Environmental Engineering Committee (EEC)

    The Environmental Engineering Committee (EEC) of the Science 
Advisory Board (SAB) will meet Wednesday through Friday, September 25-
27, 1996, at the National Risk Management Research Laboratory, 26 West 
Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio 45268, tel. [phone]. 
The meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. September 25 and end no later than 
3:00 p.m. on September 27.

[[Page 43241]]

Purpose of the Meeting

    At this meeting, the Committee will conduct a review, hold a 
consultation, hear the report of the SITE Subcommittee, and consider 
potential FY96 activities.
    The Office of Research and Development (ORD) has asked the 
Committee to review the strategic directions and approach to research 
of the National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) in the 
context of both the 1995 realignment of ORD's organizational structure, 
which used risk assessment and risk management as organizing principles 
for a nationwide laboratory system and the Strategic Plan for the 
Office of Research and Development (EPA, 1996). The Strategic Plan 
describes the relationship of risk assessment to the risk management 
process and highlights the need for scientific and engineering research 
to enable sound risk management decisions and actions. NRMRL's mission 
is to conduct research to reduce uncertainties and costs associated 
with making and implementing environmental risk management decisions. 
An abbreviated form of the current draft charge for this review 
follows.
    1. Examine and critique the research programmatic directions being 
taken by NRMRL.
    2. Review and comment on NRMRL's strategic directions as a research 
laboratory organization.
    3. Review and comment on the effectiveness of NRMRL's approach to 
science management.
    4. Examine and critique the relationship of NRMRL's risk management 
research to the intended role of risk management in the risk 
assessment/risk management paradigm.
    5. Review and comment on the strategic balance needed in NRMRL for 
the next decade among pollution prevention, technology development, 
remediation, and risk management assessment activities.
    The EEC will provide a consultation to the Office of Solid Waste 
(OSW) on a proposed surface impoundment study. The OSW is also 
soliciting public comments on the study through an announcement 
entitled ``Land Disposal Program Flexibility Act of 1996--Surface 
Impoundment Study'' in the July 25, 1996 Federal Register, Vol. 61, No. 
144, pages 38684-38687. An SAB consultation is a public encounter 
between the SAB and the Agency early in the process, before the Agency 
has commited itself to a position. The intent of a consultation is to 
leaven the Agency's thinking by amassing an eclectic collection of 
ideas about how the Agency might proceed on a particularly vexing 
problem. The product of a consultation is a very short letter to the 
Administrator, simply alerting him/her to the fact that the members of 
an SAB panel had met with the Agency to discuss the issue. There will 
be no ``report'' per se.
    The SITE Subcommittee will report to the EEC on its review of the 
technical aspects of how EPA's Superfund Innovative Technology 
Evaluation (SITE) program is carried out.

For Further Information

    A draft meeting agenda and a Committee roster can be obtained from 
Mrs. Dorothy Clark, as described above for the RROS meeting. Other 
information can be obtained from Mrs. Kathleen Conway, as described 
above. Members of the public who wish to make a brief oral presentation 
to the Committee must contact Mrs. Conway in writing (by letter or by 
fax--see previously stated information) no later than 12 noon Eastern 
Time, Thursday, September 22, 1996 in order to be included on the 
Agenda. Except for this date, the requirements for public comments are 
the same as those for the RROS meeting, described above.

Providing Oral or Written Comments at SAB Meetings

    The Science Advisory Board expects that public statements presented 
at its meetings will not be repetitive of previously submitted oral or 
written statements. In general, each individual or group making an oral 
presentation will be limited to a total time of ten minutes. Written 
comments (at least 35 copies) received in the SAB Staff Office 
sufficiently prior to a meeting date, may be mailed to the relevant SAB 
committee or subcommittee prior to its meeting; comments received too 
close to the meeting date will normally be provided to the committee at 
its meeting. Written comments may be provided to the relevant committee 
or subcommittee up until the time of the meeting.

    Dated: August 9, 1996.
Donald G. Barnes,
Staff Director, Science Advisory Board.
[FR Doc. 96-21283 Filed 8-20-96; 8:45 am]
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