[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 207 (Wednesday, October 27, 1999)] [Notices] [Pages 57884-57885] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 99-28045] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [NCEA-CD-99-1072; FRL-6464-1] Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter (External Review Draft)
Agency
Environmental Protection Agency.
Action
Notice of a Draft for Public Review and Comment.
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Summary
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), is today announcing the availability of an external review draft of the document, Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter. Required under sections 108 and 109 of the Clean Air Act, the purpose of this document is to provide an assessment of the latest scientific information on the effects of airborne particulate matter (PM) on the public health and welfare for use in the next periodic review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM.
Dates
Anyone who wishes to comment on the draft document, Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter, must submit the comments in writing by no later than January 14, 2000.
Addresses
Send the written comments to the Project Manager for Particulate Matter, National Center for Environmental Assessment-RTP Office (MD-52), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711. A copy of the Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter (External Review Draft) is available on CD ROM from the OAO Corporation, which is under contract to the EPA. Contact Ms. Cindy Jenkins, OAO Corporation representative, at 919-541-4826, 919-541-1818 (fax), or jenkins.cindy@epa.gov to request the document. OAO will need the document's title, Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter (External Review Draft), as well as your name and address
to properly process your request. Internet users may download a copy from the Internet homepage for EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment. The URL is www.epa.gov/ncea/.
www.epa.gov/ncea/For Further Information Contact
Dr. Dennis Kotchmar, National Center for Environmental Assessment-RTP Office (MD-52), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; telephone: 919- 541-4158; fax: 919-541-1818; E-mail: kotchmar.dennis@epa.gov.
Supplementary Information
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is updating and revising, where appropriate, the EPA's Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter. Sections 108 and 109 of the Clean Air Act require that the EPA carry out a periodic review and revision, where appropriate, of the criteria and the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for the ``criteria'' air pollutants such as particulate matter. Details of the EPA's plans for the review of the NAAQS for PM were announced in a previous Federal Register notice (62 FR 55201, October 23, 1997). Near the end of the comment period on the external review draft, Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter, the EPA will present the draft at a public meeting for review by the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). There will be a subsequent Federal Register notice to inform the public of the exact date and time of that CASAC meeting. The EPA is aware that a substantial number of new scientific studies on particulate matter are underway that will likely be completed and accepted for publication in time to be included in the final criteria document. To this end, the Agency encourages timely completion and submission of these studies for publication. Because the potential import of many of these additional studies cannot be assessed in the present draft, the Agency is requesting that the CASAC's and the public's comments on this external review draft focus particularly on the aspects of organization, structure, and presentation in the document, although comments on provisional conclusions and specific details are, of course, welcome. Following the CASAC meeting, the EPA plans to incorporate revisions to the document in response to public comments and CASAC review of the first external review draft, and then to release a second external review draft for public comment and CASAC review in midyear 2000. For reasons discussed above, the second draft may address a number of studies not completed in time for assessment in the first draft. Accordingly, the EPA urges that interested parties be prepared to review the second draft on that basis. Findings and conclusions from the Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter will be used as key inputs to the preparation during 2000 of a draft EPA staff paper on airborne particles, which will pose possible options for the EPA Administrator to consider in regard to potential retention or revision of current PM NAAQS.
Dated: October 21, 1999. William H. Farland, Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment. [FR Doc. 99-28045 Filed 10-26-99; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6560-50-P