[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 56 (Friday, March 23, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13789-13790]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-5358]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-8291-2; Docket ID No. ORD-2005-0001]
Draft of Part 2 of the 2007 Release of the 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 is announcing a 30-
day public review and comment period for the external review draft of
Part 2 of the 2007 release of the EPA Web site titled, ``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). NCEA will consider public comments received in
accordance with this notice when revising the CADDIS Web site.
EPA is releasing the draft CADDIS 2007 Web site solely for the
purpose of pre-dissemination peer review under applicable information
quality guidelines. The draft CADDIS 2007 Web site has not been
formally disseminated by EPA. It does not represent and should not be
construed to represent any Agency policy or determination. EPA will
consider any public comments submitted in accordance with this notice
when revising the document.
DATES: The 30-day public comment period begins March 23, 2007, and ends
April 23, 2007. Technical comments should be in writing and must be
submitted electronically or postmarked by April 23, 2007.
ADDRESSES: The draft CADDIS 2007 Web site can be accessed via the
Internet at http://caddis.tetratech-ffx.com. Enter the username
``public'' and the password ``public.'' Comments may be submitted
electronically to the EPA's e-docket, by mail, by facsimile, or by hand
delivery/courier. Additional instructions for providing comments and a
description of the portions of the Web site that are available for
review are provided at the top of the home page of the CADDIS Web site
and in the section of this notice entitled, SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on the public comment
period, contact the Office of Environmental Information Docket;
telephone: 202-566-1752; facsimile: 202-566-1753; or e-mail:
[email protected]. For technical information, contact Vic Serveiss,
NCEA, via phone: 202-564-3251, facsimile: 202-564-2018, or e-mail:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Information About the Project/Document
Over 2800 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.'' To formulate appropriate management actions
for impaired water bodies, it is important to identify the causes of
biological impairment (e.g., excess fine sediments, nutrients, or toxic
substances). Effective causal analyses call for 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. CADDIS is a Web-based decision support system
that will help regional, State, and tribal scientists find, access,
organize, and share information useful for causal evaluations of
impairment in aquatic systems. It is based on EPA's Stressor
Identification process, which is an EPA-recommended method for
identifying causes of impairments in aquatic environments. EPA released
the first version of CADDIS earlier in 2006, after addressing comments
from the public and independently selected peer reviewers. Current
features of CADDIS include a step-by-step guide to conducting causal
analysis, downloadable worksheets and examples, a library of conceptual
models, and links to useful information sources.
Two sets of modules are being added to the CADDIS Web site in
preparation for release of a major revision in September 2007 (CADDIS
2007). On January 17, 2007, the draft of the first of the two sets of
modules was released for external peer review and public comment. This
first set of draft modules included information on six candidate
causes: metals, sediments, nutrients, dissolved oxygen, thermal
alteration, and ionic strength.
This notice invites comment on the second set of draft modules
being developed for CADDIS 2007. Specifically, comment is invited on
two additional candidate cause models, altered flow rates and toxic
substances; an interactive conceptual model for phosphorus; and added
analytical methods, tools, and databases. Descriptive information on
ten analytical methods have been added to CADDIS 2007 including scatter
plots, linear regression, predicting environmental conditions from
biological observations, and species sensitivity distributions. The
principal analytical tool added to CADDIS is CADStat; a downloadable
software package for analyzing data using a variety of exploratory and
statistical approaches. New analytical databases include a stressor-
response gallery for metals and a tolerance value database. These
additions improve the capability of CADDIS to diagnose the causes of
biological impairments in streams.
II. How to Submit Technical Comments to the Docket at
www.regulations.gov
Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2005-
0001 by one of the following methods:
http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line
instructions for submitting comments.
E-mail: [email protected].
Fax: 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 phone number is 202-
566-1752.
Hand Delivery: The OEI Docket is located in the EPA
Headquarters Docket Center, EPA West Building, Room 3334,
[[Page 13790]]
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. Such 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 mail or hand delivery, please submit
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-
2005-0001. 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 a comment includes 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 www.regulations.gov or e-mail.
The www.regulations.gov Web site is an ``anonymous access'' system,
which means EPA will not know your identity or contact information
unless you provide it in the body of your comment. If you send an e-
mail comment directly to EPA without going through www.regulations.gov,
your e-mail address will be automatically captured and included as part
of the comment that is placed in the public docket and made available
on the Internet. If you submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends
that you include your name and other contact information in the body of
your comment and with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read
your comment due to technical difficulties and cannot contact you for
clarification, EPA may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic
files should avoid the use of special characters, 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: Documents in the docket are listed in the
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 materials,
such as copyrighted material, are publicly available only in hard copy.
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically
in www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the OEI Docket in the EPA
Headquarters Docket Center.
Dated: March 20, 2007.
George Alapas,
Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. E7-5358 Filed 3-22-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P