80 FR 60667 - Stormwater Management in Response to Climate Change Impacts: Lessons From the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes Regions

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

Federal Register Volume 80, Issue 194 (October 7, 2015)

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a 30- day public comment period for the draft document titled, ``Stormwater Management in Response to Climate Change Impacts: Lessons from the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes Regions'' (EPA/600/R-15/087). EPA is also announcing that Versar, Inc., an EPA contractor for external scientific peer review, will select three independent experts from a pool of six to conduct a letter peer review of the same draft document. The document was prepared by the National Center for Environmental Assessment within EPA's Office of Research and Development. This document describes insights gained from a series of EPA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sponsored workshops with communities in the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes regions to address climate change in stormwater adaptation efforts. EPA intends to forward the public comments that are submitted in accordance with this document to the external peer reviewers for their consideration during the letter peer review. When finalizing the draft documents, EPA intends to consider any public comments received in response to this notice. EPA is releasing this draft document for the purposes of public comment and peer review. This draft document is not final as described in EPA's information quality guidelines and does not represent and should not be construed to represent Agency policy or views. The draft document is available via the Internet on EPA's Risk Web page under the Recent Additions at http://www.epa.gov/risk.

[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 194 (Wednesday, October 7, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60667-60668]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2015-25590]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-ORD-2015-0287; FRL-9926-96-ORD]


Stormwater Management in Response to Climate Change Impacts: 
Lessons From the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes Regions

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of public comment period and letter peer review.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a 30-
day public comment period for the draft document titled, ``Stormwater 
Management in Response to Climate Change Impacts: Lessons from the 
Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes Regions'' (EPA/600/R-15/087). EPA is 
also announcing that Versar, Inc., an EPA contractor for external 
scientific peer review, will select three independent experts from a 
pool of six to conduct a letter peer review of the same draft document. 
The document was prepared by the National Center for Environmental 
Assessment within EPA's Office of Research and Development. This 
document describes insights gained from a series of EPA and National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sponsored workshops with 
communities in the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes regions to address 
climate change in stormwater adaptation efforts.
    EPA intends to forward the public comments that are submitted in 
accordance with this document to the external peer reviewers for their 
consideration during the letter peer review. When finalizing the draft 
documents, EPA intends to consider any public comments received in 
response to this notice. EPA is releasing this draft document for the 
purposes of public comment and peer review. This draft document is not 
final as described in EPA's information quality guidelines and does not 
represent and should not be construed to represent Agency policy or 
views.
    The draft document is available via the Internet on EPA's Risk Web 
page under the Recent Additions at http://www.epa.gov/risk.

DATES: The 30-day public comment period begins October 7, 2015, and 
ends

[[Page 60668]]

November 6, 2015. Technical comments should be in writing and must be 
received by EPA by November 6, 2015.

ADDRESSES: The draft document, ``Stormwater Management in Response to 
Climate Change Impacts: Lessons from the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes 
Regions,'' is available primarily via the Internet on the EPA's Risk 
Web page under the Recent Additions at http://www.epa.gov/risk. A 
limited number of paper copies are available from the Information 
Management Team, NCEA; telephone: 703-347-8561; facsimile: 703-347-
8691. If you are requesting a paper copy, please provide your name, 
mailing address, and the document title.
    Comments may be submitted electronically via http://www.regulations.gov, 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 public comment 
period, contact the Office of Environmental Information Docket; 
telephone: 202-566-1752; facsimile: 202-566-9744; or email: 
[email protected].
    For technical information, contact Susan Julius, NCEA; telephone: 
703-347-8619; facsimile: 703-347-8694; or email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Information About the Project/Document

    Water resources in the United States are affected by a number of 
climate stressors, including increasing temperatures, changing 
precipitation patterns, and extreme events. These changing conditions 
have implications for stormwater management as local decision makers 
look to improve existing infrastructure and build new stormwater 
systems. EPA and NOAA have conducted a number of workshops and other 
community efforts in cities and counties within the Chesapeake Bay and 
Great Lakes regions to initiate conversations about how projected land 
use and climate change could impact local water conditions and how 
adaptation (resiliency) planning can fit into decision-making processes 
to help meet existing goals. These conversations provided insights into 
the kinds of information that enable and facilitate communities' 
incorporation of climate change into local planning and decision making 
for stormwater management. The report reviews lessons learned from 
these adaptation planning experiences, including locally identified 
barriers to addressing climate change, methods to overcome barriers in 
the short term, and long term information needs to further assist 
communities in their stormwater adaptation efforts.

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

    Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD 2015-
0287, by one of the following methods:
     http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line 
instructions for submitting comments.
     Email: [email protected].
     Fax: 202-566-9744.
     Mail: Office of Environmental Information (OEI) Docket 
(Mail Code: 28221T), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 
Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20460. The phone 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 Avenue NW., Washington, DC. The EPA Docket Center's 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-
2015-0287. 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 http://www.regulations.gov or 
email. The http://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 email comment directly to EPA without going through http://www.regulations.gov, your email 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 home page at http://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
    Docket: 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 materials, 
such as copyrighted material, are 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: September 30, 2015.
Mary A. Ross,
Deputy Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 2015-25590 Filed 10-6-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P