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[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 104 (Tuesday, May 31, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31327-31328]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-13400]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OW-2007-0119; FRL-9313-2]

Draft National Coastal Condition Report IV

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of availability and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: This Notice invites public comment on the draft National 
Coastal Condition Report IV (NCCR IV), which describes the condition of 
the Nation's coastal waters. Clean coastal waters provide 
environmental, public health, recreational, and economic value; 
however, these waters are vulnerable to pollution and other stressors 
from a variety of sources. According to the draft NCCR IV, the overall 
condition of the Nation's coastal waters continues to be fair, with 
marginal improvement from EPA's 2008 National Coastal Condition Report 
III. EPA expects that this Report on the condition of coastal waters 
will increase public awareness about the extent and seriousness of 
pollution in these waters and will support more informed decisions 
concerning protection of this resource.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before August 1, 2011.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. [EPA-EPA-
HQ-OW-2007-0019], by one of the following methods:
    Email: ow-docket@epa.gov,
    Mail: Water Docket, EPA Docket Center, Environmental Protection 
Agency, Mailcode: 2822T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Room 3334, 
Washington, DC 20460,
    Hand Delivery: Water Docket, EPA Docket Center, Environmental 
Protection Agency, Mailcode: 2822T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Room 
3334, Washington, DC 20460. Such deliveries are only accepted during 
the Docket's normal hours of operation, and special arrangements should 
be made for deliveries of boxed information.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-EPA-HQ-OW-
2007-0019. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included 
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at 
http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided, unless the 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.
    The http://www.regulations.gov website 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 http://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: 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 
in http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Docket, EPA/DC, 
EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. The 
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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gregory Colianni, Ocean and Coastal 
Protection Division, Office of Water, 4504T, U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460, 
telephone number: 202-566-1249; fax number: 202-566-1336; email 
address: Colianni.Gregory@epa.gov or Virginia Engle, Gulf Ecology 
Division, Office of Research and Development, Environmental Protection 
Agency, 1 Sabine Island Drive, Gulf Breeze, Florida 32561; telephone 
number: (850) 934-9354; fax number: (850) 934-9201; email address: 
Engle.Virginia@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. General Information

    This report is designed to help us better understand the condition 
of the nation's coastal waters, whether that condition is getting 
better or worse, and how different regions compare. This report, 
however, cannot represent all individual coastal and estuarine systems 
of the U.S. and is based on a limited number of ecological indices and 
component indicators for which nationally consistent data sets are 
available to support estimates of ecological condition. The assessments 
provided in this report, and more importantly, the underlying data used 
to develop the assessments, provides a picture of historical coastal 
conditions at state, regional, and national scales. For example, the 
National Coastal Assessment (NCA) data have been used to provide 
insight into the conditions in the estuaries of Louisiana and 
Mississippi prior to Hurricane Katrina. These data may also be used, 
along with data and studies by others, to help us understand conditions 
in Gulf of Mexico estuaries prior to the Deepwater Horizon incident and 
subsequent BP oil spill. However, the methodology and data used in this 
report were not designed to assess all impacts related to oil spills as 
an ecological stressor. This report does not include, for example, 
indicators for all oil-related contaminants such as oil itself, grease, 
alkylated PAHs, or volatile organic compounds, dispersant compounds, or 
other indicators of oil spill-related

[[Page 31328]]

exposure that might be required in a comprehensive environmental 
assessment. Any comparisons to environmental data collected to assess 
the impact of the BP oil spill on Gulf of Mexico estuaries should be 
limited to the indicators and methods presented in this report, and to 
broad generalizations about coastal conditions at state, regional or 
national scales.
    Nevertheless, in light of the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of 
Mexico, EPA recognizes that some may wish to use the 2003-2006 data 
presented in the draft NCCR IV as a basis for comparison of ecological 
conditions in Gulf of Mexico coastal waters following the oil spill. 
EPA seeks comments from the scientific community on the utility and 
limitations of the information presented in the draft NCCR IV for this 
type of impact analysis.
    The National Coastal Condition Reports represent collaboration 
among EPA (Office of Water (OW) and Office of Research and Development 
(ORD)), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and 
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS), and coastal state 
agencies. The first National Coastal Condition Report published in 2001 
in partnership with NOAA, USFWS, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and 
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) included some data from about 70% 
of the U.S. coastal waters. Based upon available data from 1990-1996, 
the Report concluded that the Nation's coastal waters were in fair 
condition. The second National Coastal Condition Report, released in 
2005, included some data from all of the Nation's coastal waters in the 
conterminous 48 states and Puerto Rico, and concluded that these waters 
continued to be in fair condition. The third National Coastal Condition 
Report, released in 2008, built upon the previous reports and provided 
assessments based on data collected from 2001 to 2003. The third Report 
similarly concluded that the overall condition of the Nation's coastal 
waters was fair. According to the draft NCCR IV, the overall condition 
of the Nation's coastal waters continues to be fair, with marginal 
improvement from EPA's 2008 National Coastal Condition Report III.
    With each successive report the geographic scope of NCA coverage 
has expanded. This fourth edition of the NCCR includes for the first 
time an assessment of estuarine condition in American Samoa, Guam, and 
the U.S. Virgin Islands along with updated assessment of coastal waters 
of the conterminous U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. The NCCR IV 
data were collected from 3,144 sites from 2003 through 2006. This 
Report serves as a useful tool for analyzing the progress of coastal 
programs implemented since the first Report and as a ``benchmark'' for 
future comparisons and therefore allows for the analysis of trends in 
condition over time.
    The information presented in the NCCR IV is more streamlined than 
the NCCR III, with a greater focus on NCA indicators rather than 
highlights of other coastal programs. In addition to expanded NCA 
geographic coverage, the NCCR IV also includes several new sections: 
Summaries of offshore ocean condition for three areas (Mid-Atlantic 
Bight, South Atlantic Bight, and the West Coast) and comparisons of 
these waters with near-shore condition, trends in regional beach 
closures, a Great Lakes fisheries section, and a chapter on emerging 
coastal issues.
    The Draft National Coastal Condition Report IV is also undergoing 
an external peer review led by EPA's Office of Research and 
Development. The peer review plan, including the peer review charge 
questions, is available upon request by contacting Virginia Houk at: 
Houk.Virginia@epa.gov.
    The draft document can be found on the Web at:
    http://nccr4.rti.org/
    Username = nccr4
    Password = Coastal10!

    Dated: May 20, 2011.
Nancy K. Stoner,
Acting Assistant Administrator for Water.
[FR Doc. 2011-13400 Filed 5-27-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
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