67278 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 188 / Friday, September 29, 2023 / Notices 

NEW) to the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB) for review and approval 

in accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act. Before doing so, EPA is 

soliciting public comments on specific 

aspects of the proposed information 

collection as described below. This is a 

request for approval of a new collection. 

This notice allows for 60 days for public 

comments. 

DATES: Comments must be submitted on 

or before November 28, 2023. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, 

referencing Docket ID Number EPA– 

HQ–OLEM–2023–0416, to EPA online 

using www.regulations.gov (our 

preferred method), or by mail to: EPA 

Docket Center, Environmental 

Protection Agency, Mail Code 28221T, 

1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 

Washington, DC 20460. EPA’s policy is 

that all comments received will be 

included in the public docket without 

change including any personal 

information provided, unless the 

comment includes profanity, threats, 

information claimed to be Confidential 

Business Information (CBI) or other 

information whose disclosure is 

restricted by statute. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Hannah Blaufuss, Resource 

Conservation and Sustainability 

Division, Office of Resource 

Conservation and Recovery, 5306P, 

Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 

Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 

20460; telephone number: 202–564– 

5614; email address: Blaufuss.hannah@

epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a 

request for approval of a new collection. 

An agency may not conduct or sponsor 

and a person is not required to respond 

to a collection of information unless it 

displays a currently valid OMB control 

number. 

This notice allows 60 days for public 

comments. Supporting documents, 

which explain in detail the information 

that the EPA will be collecting, are 

available in the public docket for this 

ICR. The docket can be viewed online 

at www.regulations.gov or in person at 

the EPA Docket Center, WJC West, 

Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW, 

Washington, DC. The telephone number 

for the Docket Center is 202–566–1744. 

For additional information about EPA’s 

public docket, visit http://www.epa.gov/ 

dockets. 

Pursuant to section 3506(c)(2)(A) of 

the PRA, EPA is soliciting comments 

and information to enable it to: (i) 

Evaluate whether the proposed 

collection of information is necessary 

for the proper performance of the 

functions of the Agency, including 

whether the information will have 

practical utility; (ii) evaluate the 

accuracy of the Agency’s estimate of the 

burden of the proposed collection of 

information, including the validity of 

the methodology and assumptions used; 

(iii) enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (iv) minimize the burden 

of the collection of information on those 

who are to respond, including through 

the use of appropriate forms of 

information technology. EPA will 

consider the comments received and 

amend the ICR as appropriate. The final 

ICR package will then be submitted to 

OMB for review and approval. At that 

time, EPA will issue another Federal 

Register notice to announce the 

submission of the ICR to OMB and the 

opportunity to submit additional 

comments to OMB. 

Abstract: EPA’s Office of Land and 

Emergency Management, Office of 

Resource Conservation and Recovery 

(ORCR) is charged with, among other 

responsibilities, ensuring efficient and 

equitable non-hazardous waste 

management. In this capacity, timely 

and consistent information on waste/ 

materials generation, disposition and 

recovery is essential to ensure that 

programs, policies, and grant monies are 

properly targeted. Several statutes 

mandate EPA to implement grants and 

programs that will be supported by this 

Information Collection Request (ICR). 

Those statutes include the Save our Seas 

2.0 Act (SOS 2.0) (Pub. L. 116–224), the 

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act 

(IIJA) (Pub. L. 117–58) and the Resource 

Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) 

42 U.S.C. 6983. EPA is mandated to 

meet certain reporting requirements as 

part of the grant programs established in 

SOS 2.0 and IIJA. The creation of two 

new grant programs in ORCR requires 

efficiency to effectively manage the new 

work. Under this ICR, a new knowledge 

management system will be developed 

to manage the post-award grant 

reporting that is mandatory for grant 

recipients’ reporting requirements under 

SOS 2.0 and IIJA. This system will assist 

staff in organizing quarterly reports to 

measure impact and report to Congress. 

Information collected under this ICR 

also will illustrate progress toward the 

National Recycling Goal to increase the 

nation’s recycling rate to 50% by 2030 

and the U.S. 2030 Food Loss and Waste 

Reduction Goal to cut food loss and 

waste in half by the year 2030. This ICR 

encompasses EPA activities under the 

National Recycling Strategy to 

characterize materials management 

infrastructure, standardize measurement 

and increase data collection, and update 

the Facts and Figures on Materials, 

Wastes and Recycling Report. This ICR 

also will support activities associated 

with future strategies EPA may release 

as part of the series on building a 

circular economy for all, including the 

National Strategy to Prevent Plastic 

Pollution. To track progress on the 

implementation of these strategies and 

goals, EPA requires current, accurate, 

and evolving data on national waste 

management pathways, including 

recycling participation and food loss 

and waste generation rates. Without 

data collection, tracking progress relies 

upon predictive modelling that may be 

insufficiently accurate and precise when 

definitiveness is key. Lastly, this ICR 

also will support working with EPA’s 

Office of Research and Development, 

and potentially the National Center for 

Environmental Economics, to integrate 

Waste Input-Output modeling and the 

U.S. Environmentally-Extended InputOutput model as the basis for future 

Facts and Figures data estimates. 

Form numbers: None. 

Respondents/affected entities: To be 

determined. 

Respondent’s obligation to respond: 

voluntary for general surveys and 

mandatory for grant recipients’ per 

reporting requirements under SOS 2.0 

and IIJA. 

Estimated number of respondents: To 

be determined. 

Frequency of response: To be 

determined. 

Total estimated burden: To be 

determined. 

Total estimated cost: To be 

determined. 

Dated: September 24, 2023. 

Carolyn Hoskinson, 

Director, Office of Resource Conservation and 

Recovery. 

[FR Doc. 2023–21326 Filed 9–28–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[EPA–HQ–OPPT–2023–0265; FRL–11109– 

01–OCSPP] 

Tris(2-chloroethyl) Phosphate (TCEP); 

Draft Risk Evaluation under the Toxic 

Substances Control Act (TSCA); Letter 

Peer Review; Request for Nominations 

of Expert Reviewers 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is seeking public 

nominations of scientific and technical 


lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with NOTICES1
Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 188 / Friday, September 29, 2023 / Notices 67279 

experts to review the draft Risk 

Evaluation for Tris(2-chloroethyl) 

Phosphate (TCEP) conducted under the 

Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). 

The draft risk evaluation will be 

released for public review and comment 

in December 2023 through a separate 

Federal Register document and 

subsequently submitted for letter peer 

review by the expert reviewers. 

DATES: Nominations should be 

submitted in time to arrive no later 

October 30, 2023. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your nominations to 

the Peer Review Leader listed under FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. Do not 

electronically submit any information 

you consider to be Confidential 

Business Information (CBI) or other 

information whose public disclosure is 

restricted by statute. If your nomination 

may contain any such information, 

please contact the Peer Review Leader 

to obtain special instructions before 

submitting that information. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Contact the Peer Review Leader, Dr. 

Alaa Kamel, Mission Support Division 

(7602M), Office of Program Support, 

Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution 

Prevention, Environmental Protection 

Agency; telephone number: (202) 564– 

5336; email address: kamel.alaa@

epa.gov or call the main office: (202) 

564–8450. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. General Information 

A. What action is the Agency taking? 

The Agency is seeking public 

nominations of scientific and technical 

experts that the EPA can consider for 

service as peer reviewers for the review 

of the ‘‘2023 Draft Risk Evaluation for 

Tris(2-chloroethyl) Phosphate (TCEP).’’ 

EPA will be soliciting comments from 

the reviewers on the approach and 

methodologies utilized in the draft 2023 

TCEP risk evaluation. 

This document provides instructions 

for submitting nominations for EPA to 

consider for reviewers. EPA will publish 

a separate document in the Federal 

Register in December 2023 to announce 

the availability of the draft risk 

evaluation and solicit public comments. 

B. What is the Agency’s authority for 

taking this action? 

TSCA section 6(b) requires that EPA 

conduct risk evaluations on existing 

chemical substances and identifies the 

minimum components EPA must 

include in all chemical substance risk 

evaluations (15 U.S.C. 2605(b)). The risk 

evaluation must not consider costs or 

other non-risk factors (15 U.S.C. 

2605(b)(4)(F)(iii)). The specific risk 

evaluation process is set out in 40 CFR 

part 702 and summarized on EPA’s 

website at https://www.epa.gov/ 

assessing-and-managing-chemicalsunder-tsca/risk-evaluations-existingchemicals-under-tsca. 

C. Does this action apply to me? 

This action is directed to the public 

in general. This action may, however, be 

of interest to those involved in the 

manufacture, processing, distribution, 

and disposal of chemical substances and 

mixtures, and/or those interested in the 

assessment of risks involving chemical 

substances regulated under TSCA. Since 

other entities may also be interested, the 

Agency has not attempted to describe all 

the specific entities that may be affected 

by this action. 

II. Nominations for Peer Reviewers 

A. Why is EPA seeking nominations for 

peer reviewers? 

As part of a broader process for 

developing a pool of candidates for peer 

reviews, EPA is asking the public and 

stakeholder communities for 

nominations of scientific and technical 

experts that EPA can consider as 

prospective candidates to serve as peer 

reviewers. Any interested person or 

organization may nominate qualified 

individuals for consideration as 

prospective candidates for this review 

by following the instructions provided 

in this document. Individuals may also 

self-nominate. 

Those who are selected from the pool 

of prospective candidates will be asked 

to review the draft risk evaluation for 

TCEP and to help finalize the Letter 

Review report. 

B. What expertise is sought for this peer 

review? 

Individuals nominated for this peer 

review, should have expertise in one or 

more of the following areas: 

environmental fate assessment; 

environmental hazard assessment; 

human health toxicology with 

experience in cancer mode of action, 

reproductive toxicology, 

neurotoxicology, and renal toxicology; 

dose-response modeling; 

physiologically based pharmacokinetic 

(PBPK) modeling; and human or 

environmental exposure assessment, 

especially for susceptible life stages and 

subpopulations to environmental 

contaminants, and experience with 

particle versus gaseous partitioning and 

air deposition of semi-volatile organic 

compounds (SVOCs). Nominees should 

be scientists who have sufficient 

professional qualifications, including 

training and experience, to be capable of 

providing expert comments on the 

scientific issues for this review. 

C. How do I make a nomination? 

By the deadline indicated under 

DATES, submit your nomination to the 

Peer Review Leader listed under FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. Each 

nomination should include the 

following: Contact information for the 

person making the nomination; name, 

affiliation, and contact information for 

the nominee; and the disciplinary and 

specific areas of expertise of the 

nominee. 

D. Will ad hoc reviewers be subjected to 

an ethics review? 

Peer reviewers are subject to the 

provisions of the Standards of Ethical 

Conduct for Employees of the Executive 

Branch at 5 CFR part 2635, conflict of 

interest statutes in Title 18 of the United 

States Code and related regulations. In 

anticipation of this requirement, 

prospective candidates will be asked to 

submit confidential financial 

information which shall fully disclose, 

among other financial interests, the 

candidate’s employment, stocks and 

bonds, and where applicable, sources of 

research support. EPA will evaluate the 

candidates’ financial disclosure forms to 

assess whether there are financial 

conflicts of interest, appearance of a loss 

of impartiality, or any prior involvement 

with the development of the documents 

under consideration (including previous 

scientific peer review) before the 

candidate is considered further for 

service. 

E. How will EPA select peer reviewers? 

The selection of scientists to serve as 

peer reviewers is based on the expertise 

needed to address the Agency’s charge 

to the reviewers. No interested scientists 

shall be ineligible to serve by reason of 

their membership on any advisory 

committee to a federal department or 

agency or their employment by a federal 

department or agency, except EPA. 

Other factors considered during the 

selection process include availability of 

the prospective candidate to fully 

participate in the Letter Review, absence 

of any conflicts of interest or appearance 

of loss of impartiality, independence 

with respect to the matters under 

review, and lack of bias. Although 

financial conflicts of interest, the 

appearance of loss of impartiality, lack 

of independence, and bias may result in 

non-selection, the absence of such 

concerns does not assure that a 

candidate will be selected to serve as a 

peer reviewer. 

Numerous qualified candidates are 

often identified for the review. 


lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with NOTICES1
67280 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 188 / Friday, September 29, 2023 / Notices 

Therefore, selection decisions involve 

carefully weighing a number of factors 

including the candidates’ areas of 

expertise and professional qualifications 

and achieving an overall balance of 

different scientific perspectives across 

reviewers. The Agency will consider all 

nominations of prospective candidates 

for service as peer reviewers that are 

received on or before the date listed in 

the DATES section of this document. 

However, the final selection of peer 

reviewers is a discretionary function of 

the Agency. At this time, EPA 

anticipates selecting 10–12 reviewers in 

the review of the designated topic. 

EPA plans to make a list of candidates 

under consideration as prospective peer 

reviewers for this review available for 

public comment by late fall of 2023. The 

list will be available in the docket at 

https://www.regulations.gov (docket ID 

number EPA–HQ–OPPT–2023–0265). 

III. Letter Review 

A. What is the purpose of this Letter 

Review? 

The focus of this Letter Review is to 

review the approach and methodologies 

utilized in the ‘‘2023 Draft Risk 

Evaluation for Tris(2-chloroethyl) 

Phosphate (TCEP).’’ Feedback from this 

review will be considered in the 

development of the final TCEP risk 

evaluation. 

EPA intends to announce in 

December 2023, in the Federal Register, 

the availability of and solicit public 

comment on the draft risk evaluation, at 

which time EPA will provide 

instructions for submitting public 

comments for the Agency’s and Letter 

Peer Reviewers’ consideration. 

B. Why did EPA develop these 

documents? 

TCEP is a High-Priority substance 

undergoing the TSCA risk evaluation 

process after passage of the Frank R. 

Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st 

Century Act, which amended TSCA. 

TCEP has been primarily used in 

paint and coating manufacturing, and in 

polymers used in aerospace equipment 

and products. In the past it has also 

been used in commercial and consumer 

products, including fabric and textile, 

products, foam seating, and 

construction materials. TCEP may also 

be imported in articles intended for 

consumer use. 

In August 2020, EPA published a final 

scope document for 20 High-Priority 

substances, including TCEP, outlining 

the hazards, exposures, conditions of 

use, and the potentially exposed or 

susceptible subpopulations the Agency 

expects to consider in its risk 

evaluation. 

EPA is submitting the ‘‘2023 Draft 

Risk Evaluation for Tris(2-chloroethyl) 

Phosphate (TCEP)’’ and associated 

supporting documents for Letter Peer 

Review. The Letter Peer Review will 

include review of the analysis of 

physical chemical properties, the fate of 

TCEP in the environment, releases of 

TCEP to the environment, 

environmental hazard and risk 

characterization for terrestrial and 

aquatic species, and human health 

hazard and risk characterization for 

workers, consumers, and the general 

population. Specifically, EPA is seeking 

comment on the following issues: 

• The list of considerations EPA used 

to arrive at the human health hazard 

confidence levels and the specific 

confidence levels chosen for individual 

human health hazard outcome 

(neurotoxicity, reproductive/ 

developmental effects, kidney effects, 

and cancer) in the TCEP risk evaluation. 

• Whether the approach used to 

estimate anaerobic degradation in the 

absence of data is appropriate for 

assessing anaerobic degradation in 

sediment. 

• Use of the model, Web-based 

Interspecies Correlation Estimation 

(Web-ICE), to predict acute toxicity 

hazard values for aquatic species not 

represented in the available studies. 

This is the first time EPA has used WebICE in a TSCA risk evaluation. These 

predictions were used with available 

empirical data to create a Species 

Sensitivity Distribution (SSD). The SSD 

was used to calculate a hazardous 

concentration for 5% of species (HC05). 

EPA is also using a data-driven way of 

accounting for uncertainty for 

environmental hazard and is soliciting 

comment on its characterization of this 

uncertainty, specifically its use of the 

lower bound of the 95% confidence 

interval of the hazardous HC05. 

• Human health hazard benchmark 

dose modeling of animal toxicity data 

for TCEP. 

• The list of considerations EPA used 

to arrive at the human health hazard 

confidence levels and the specific 

confidence levels chosen for individual 

human health hazard outcomes 

(neurotoxicity, reproductive/ 

developmental effects, kidney effects, 

and cancer) to quantitatively evaluate 

risk from TCEP. 

• Use of several approaches for 

estimating exposures to humans and 

environmental receptors: (1) The use of 

Verner 2008 Multi-compartment model, 

which was used to assess TCEP 

exposure to infants through human milk 

for the first time in a TSCA risk 

evaluation; (2) the use of Verner 2008 

Multi-compartment model and 

associated uncertainties in extrapolating 

from the inhalation to oral routes of 

exposure; (3) the use of AERMOD model 

to estimate air deposition of TCEP. EPA 

has used AERMOD in previous TSCA 

risk evaluations; however, its use in 

estimating air deposition is novel for 

TSCA risk evaluations. 

• Approach for modeling drinking 

water contamination from wells near 

municipal solid waste landfills, which 

is a new approach for TSCA risk 

evaluations. 

C. How can I access the documents 

submitted for review to the SACC? 

EPA is planning to release the ‘‘2023 

Draft Risk Evaluation for Tris(2- 

chloroethyl) Phosphate (TCEP)’’ and all 

background documents, related 

supporting materials, and draft charge 

questions in December 2023. At that 

time, EPA will publish a separate 

document in the Federal Register to 

announce the availability of and solicit 

public comment on the draft risk 

evaluation and provide instructions for 

submitting written comments. These 

materials will be available in the docket 

at https://www.regulations.gov (docket 

ID number EPA–HQ–OPPT–2023–0265) 

and through the TSCA Scientific Peer 

Review Committees website. In 

addition, as additional background 

materials become available, EPA will 

include those additional background 

documents (e.g., reviewers participating 

in this letter review) in the docket and 

through the website. 

Authority: 15 U.S.C. 2625(h). 

Dated: September 26, 2023. 

Michal Freedhoff, 

Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical 

Safety and Pollution Prevention. 

[FR Doc. 2023–21544 Filed 9–28–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION 

Sunshine Act Meetings 

TIME AND DATE: 10 a.m., Thursday, 

October 12, 2023. 

PLACE: You may observe the open 

portions of this meeting in person at 

1501 Farm Credit Drive, McLean, 

Virginia 22102–5090, or virtually. If you 

would like to observe, at least 24 hours 

in advance, visit FCA.gov, select 

‘‘Newsroom,’’ then select ‘‘Events.’’ 

From there, access the linked 

‘‘Instructions for board meeting visitors’’ 

and complete the described registration 

process. 

STATUS: Parts of this meeting will be 

open to the public. The rest of the 

meeting will be closed to the public. 


lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with NOTICES1