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monitor changes in baseline conditions, including climate change effects. RMNs have been established in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast, and efforts are expanding into other regions. The need for RMNs stems from the lack of long-term, contemporaneous biological, thermal, and hydrologic data, particularly at minimally disturbed sites. Data collected at RMNs will be used to detect temporal trends; investigate relationships between biological, thermal, and hydrologic data; explore ecosystem responses and recovery from extreme weather events; test hypotheses and predictive models related to climate change; and quantify natural variability. RMN surveys build on existing bioassessment efforts, with the goal of collecting comparable data that can be pooled efficiently at a regional level. This document describes the development of the current RMNs for small, freshwater wadeable streams. It contains information on selection of candidate sites, expectations for data collection, the rationale for collecting these data, and provides examples of how the RMN data will be used and analyzed.

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–2014– 0850, by one of the following methods:

• http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for submitting

comments.

• Email: Docket

_ ORD@epa.gov

.

• Fax: 202–566–9744.

• Mail: EPA Docket Center [ORD 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 ORD 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–2014– 0850. 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 ORD Docket in the EPA Headquarters Docket Center.

Dated: November 20, 2014. Debra B. Walsh, Acting Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.

[FR Doc. 2014–28154 Filed 11–26–14; 8:45 am]

**BILLING CODE 6560–50–P**

**ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY** 

**[FRL–9919–84–OA]**

**Request for Nominations of Candidates for EPA’s Science**  **Advisory Board 2015; Scientific and Technological Achievement Awards**  **Committee**

**AGENCY :**  Environmental Protection Agency.

**ACTION :**  Notice.

**SUMMARY :**  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) invites nominations of scientific experts from a diverse range of disciplines to be considered for appointment to the Science Advisory Board’s (SAB) 2015 Scientific and Technological Achievement Awards (STAA) Committee described in this notice.

**DATES :**  Nominations should be submitted in time to arrive no later than December 19, 2014.

**FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT :**  For further information about the SAB’s STAA Committee membership appointment process and schedule, please contact Mr. Edward Hanlon, Designated Federal Officer (DFO), SAB Staff Office, by telephone/voice mail at (202) 564–2134; by fax at (202) 565– 2098 or via email at hanlon.edward@

epa.gov

.

General information concerning the EPA SAB can be found at the EPA SAB Web site at http://www.epa.gov/sab

. **SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION :** 

Background: Established by statute, the SAB (42 U.S.C. 4365) is a chartered Federal Advisory Committee that provides independent scientific and technical peer review, advice and recommendations to the EPA Administrator on the technical basis for EPA actions. As a Federal Advisory Committee, the SAB conducts business in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) (5 U.S.C. App. 2) and related regulations. The SAB and the 2015 STAA Committee will comply with the provisions of FACA and all appropriate SAB Staff Office procedural policies.

The EPA established the STAA in 1980 to recognize Agency scientists and


### 70868 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 229 / Friday, November 28, 2014 / Notices

engineers who published their work in the peer-reviewed literature. The STAA Program is an agency-wide competition to promote and recognize scientific and technological achievements by EPA employees. The STAA program is administered and managed by the EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD). Each year the SAB has been asked to review the EPA’s STAA nominations and make recommendations to the Administrator for monetary awards. The SAB Staff Office is seeking nominations of experts for the SAB 2015 STAA Committee, which operates under the auspices of the SAB.

Request for Nominations: The SAB Staff Office is seeking nominations of experts to form the SAB 2015 STAA Committee in the following disciplines as they relate to human health and the environment: Air pollution exposure; chemistry and geochemistry; chemical engineering; civil and environmental engineering; ecology; environmental economics; groundwater and surface water contaminant fate and transport; human health effects and risk assessment; hydrology and hydrogeology; monitoring and measurement methods for air and water; risk management; transport and fate of contaminants; water quality; and water and wastewater treatment processes

. The SAB Staff Office is especially interested in scientists with expertise described above who have knowledge and experience in air quality; aquatic and ecological toxicology; chemical safety; climate change; community environmental health; dosimetry and inhalation toxicology; drinking water; ecological modeling; ecological risk assessment; ecosystem services; energy and the environment; epidemiology; green chemistry; homeland security; human health dosimetry; mechanisms of toxicity and carcinogenicity; metabolism; statistics; sustainability; toxicokinetics; toxicology; waste and waste management; and water re-use

.

Process and Deadline for Submitting Nominations: Any interested person or organization may nominate qualified individuals in the areas of expertise described above for possible service on the 2015 STAA Committee identified in this notice. Nominations should be submitted in electronic format (preferred over hard copy) following the instructions for Nomination to Advisory Panels and Ad Hoc Committees, provided on the SAB Web site (see the ‘‘Nomination of Experts’’ link on the blue navigational bar at http:// www.epa.gov/sab). To receive full consideration, nominations should include the information requested below.

EPA’s SAB Staff Office requests contact information about the person making the nomination; contact information about the nominee; the disciplinary and specific areas of expertise of the nominee; the nominee’s resume or curriculum vitae; sources of recent grant and/or contract support; and a biographical sketch of the nominee indicating current position, educational background, research activities, and recent service on other national advisory committees or national professional organizations.

Persons having questions about the nomination procedures, or who are unable to submit nominations through the SAB Web site, should contact Mr. Edward Hanlon as indicated above in this notice. Nominations should be submitted in time to arrive no later than December 19, 2014. EPA values and welcomes diversity. In an effort to obtain nominations of diverse candidates, EPA encourages nominations of women and men of all racial and ethnic groups.

The EPA SAB Staff Office will acknowledge receipt of nominations. The names and biosketches of qualified nominees identified by respondents to this Federal Register notice, and additional experts identified by the SAB Staff, will be posted in a List of Candidates on the SAB Web site at http://www.epa.gov/sab . Public comments on the List of Candidates will be accepted for 21 days. The public will be requested to provide relevant information or other documentation on nominees that the SAB Staff Office should consider in evaluating candidates.

For the EPA SAB Staff Office a balanced review committee includes candidates who possess the necessary domains of knowledge, the relevant scientific perspectives (which, among other factors, can be influenced by work history and affiliation), and the collective breadth of experience to adequately address the charge. The SAB Staff Office will consider public comments on the List of Candidates, information provided by the candidates themselves, and background information independently gathered by the SAB Staff Office. Selection criteria to be used for committee membership include: (a) Scientific and/or technical expertise, knowledge, and experience (primary factors); (b) availability and willingness to serve; (c) absence of financial conflicts of interest; (d) absence of an appearance of a loss of impartiality; (e) skills working in committees, subcommittees and advisory panels; and, (f) for the panel as a whole, diversity of expertise and scientific points of view.

The SAB Staff Office’s evaluation of an absence of financial conflicts of interest will include a review of the ‘‘Confidential Financial Disclosure Form for Special Government Employees Serving on Federal Advisory Committees at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’’ (EPA Form 3110– 48). This confidential form allows government officials to determine whether there is a statutory conflict between a person’s public responsibilities (which include membership on an EPA federal advisory committee) and private interests and activities, or the appearance of a loss of impartiality, as defined by federal regulation. The form may be viewed and downloaded from the following URL address http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/ sabproduct.nsf/Web/ ethics?OpenDocument

.

The approved policy under which the EPA SAB Office selects members for subcommittees and review panels is described in the following document, Overview of the Panel Formation Process at the Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board (EPA– SAB–EC–02–010), which is posted on the SAB Web site at http:// www.epa.gov/sab/pdf/ec02010.pdf

. Dated: November 20, 2014. Thomas Brennan, Deputy Director, EPA Science Advisory Board Staff Office.

[FR Doc. 2014–28157 Filed 11–26–14; 8:45 am]

**BILLING CODE 6560–50–P**

**FEDERAL ACCOUNTING STANDARDS ADVISORY BOARD** 

**Notice of Publication of Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board** **(FASAB) Annual Report and Three Year Plan** 

**AGENCY :**  Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board.

**ACTION :**  Notice.

Board Action: Pursuant to 31 U.S.C. 3511(d), the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92–463), as amended, and the FASAB Rules of Procedure, as amended in October, 2010, notice is hereby given that the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) has published The Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2014 and Three-Year Plan. The combined report allows stakeholders to consider FASAB’s progress and invites them to advise the Board about its plans. Your views regarding the content of the