2010-15047. Draft of the 2010 Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System (CADDIS)

AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Notice of external review draft for public review and comment.

SUMMARY:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a 30-day public review and comment period for the draft Web site, “2010 release of the Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System (CADDIS).” The CADDIS Web site was developed and prepared by EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), in the Office of Research and Development (ORD). EPA will consider public comments submitted in accordance with this notice and may revise the draft Web site thereafter. The draft 2010 CADDIS Web site is available at http://caddis-review.tetratech-ffx.com/​index.html.

DATES:

The public comment period begins June 22, 2010, and ends July 22, 2010. Comments should be in writing and must be received by EPA by July 22, 2010.

Comments may be submitted electronically via http://www.regulations.gov,, by e-mail, by mail, by facsimile, or by hand delivery/courier. Please follow the detailed instructions provided in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For information on the docket, http://www.regulations.gov,, or the public comment period, please contact the Office of Environmental Information (OEI) Docket (Mail Code: 2822T), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460; telephone: [phone]; facsimile: 202-566-1753; or e-mail: [e-mail].

For technical information, please contact Laurie Alexander, National Center for Environmental Assessment (8623P), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460; telephone: [phone]; facsimile: 703-347-8692; or e-mail: [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Information About CADDIS

Over a thousand water bodies in the United States are listed by states as biologically impaired. For many of these sites, the cause of impairment is reported as “unknown.” Before appropriate management actions can be formulated for impaired water bodies, the causes of biological impairment (e.g., excess fine sediments, nutrients, or toxics) must be identified. Effective causal analyses require knowledge of the mechanisms, symptoms, and stressor-response relationships for various stressors, as well as the ability to use that knowledge to draw appropriate, defensible conclusions. To aid in these causal analyses, NCEA developed CADDIS, which is a web-based decision support system that will help regional, state, and tribal investigators find, access, organize, and share information useful for causal evaluations in aquatic systems. CADDIS is based on EPA's Stressor Identification process, which is a formal method for identifying causes of impairments in aquatic environments. Features include a step-by-step guide to conducting causal analysis; examples and applications; a library of conceptual models; and an online application for collaborating on conceptual diagrams and using them to update and access a database of supporting literature, information on basic and advanced data analyses, downloadable software tools, and links to outside information sources.

II. How to Submit Comments to the Docket at http://www.regulations.gov

Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2010-0534, by one of the following methods:

• http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for submitting comments.
• E-mail: [e-mail].
• Facsimile: 202-566-1753.
• Mail: Office of Environmental Information (OEI) Docket (Mail Code: 2822T), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460. The telephone number is 202-566-1752. If you provide comments by mail, please submit one unbound original with pages numbered consecutively, and three copies of the comments. For attachments, provide an index, number pages consecutively with the comments, and submit an unbound original and three copies.
• Hand Delivery: The OEI Docket is located in the EPA Headquarters Docket Center, EPA West Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. The EPA Docket Center Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Public Reading Room is 202-566-1744. Deliveries are only accepted during the docket's normal hours of operation, and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of boxed information. If you provide comments by hand delivery, please submit one unbound original with pages numbered consecutively, and three copies of the comments. For attachments, provide an index, number pages consecutively with the comments, and submit an unbound original and three copies.

Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2010-0534. Please ensure that your comments are submitted within the specified comment period. Comments received after the closing date will be marked “late,” and may only be considered if time permits. It is EPA's policy to include all comments it receives in the public docket without change and to make the comments available online at http://www.regulations.gov,, including any personal information provided, unless comments include information claimed to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The http://www.regulations.gov Web site is an “anonymous access” system, which means that EPA will not know your identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of your comments. If you send e-mail comments directly to EPA without going through http://www.regulations.gov,, your e-mail address will be automatically captured and included as part of the comments that are placed in the public docket and made available on the Internet. If you submit electronic comments, EPA recommends that you include your name and other contact information in the body of your comments and with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comments due to technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA may not be able to consider your comments. Electronic files should avoid the use of special characters and any form of encryption and be free of any defects or viruses. For additional information about EPA's public docket, visit the EPA Docket Center homepage at http://www.epa.gov/​epahome/​dockets.htm.

Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically at http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the OEI Docket in the EPA Headquarters Docket Center.

Dated: June 15, 2010.

Rebecca Clark,

Acting Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.