51854 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 192 / Friday, October 3, 1997 / Notices

III. Public Record

A record has been established for this

action under docket number ‘‘OPPTS–

00221’’ (including comments and data

submitted electronically as described

below). A public version of this record,

including printed, paper versions of

electronic comments, which does not

include any information claimed as CBI,

is available for inspection from noon to

4 p.m., Monday through Friday,

excluding legal holidays. The public

record is located in the TSCA

Nonconfidential Information Center,

Rm. NE–B607, 401 M St., SW.,

Washington, DC 20460.

Electronic comments can be sent

directly to EPA at:

oppt.ncic@epamail.epa.gov

Electronic comments must be

submitted as an ASCII file avoiding the

use of special characters and any form

of encryption.

The official record for this action, as

well as the public version, as described

above will be kept in paper form.

Accordingly, EPA will transfer all

comments received electronically into

printed, paper form as they are received

and will place the paper copies in the

official record, which will also include

all comments submitted directly in

writing. The official record is the paper

record maintained at the address in

ADDRESSES at the beginning of this

document.

List of Subjects

Environmental protection and

Information collection requests.

Dated: September 24, 1997.

Susan H. Wayland,

Acting Assistant Administrator for

Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances.

[FR Doc. 97–26324 Filed 10–2–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560–50–F

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AGENCY

[FRL–5903–1]

Review and Evaluation of EPA

Standards Regarding Children’s Health

Protection from Environmental Risks

AGENCY: Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

SUMMARY: As part of its ongoing

commitment to protect children from

environmental health risks, EPA will

select five existing human health and

environmental protection standards for

review and evaluation to determine if

they sufficiently protect children’s

health. EPA is seeking

recommendations and comment

concerning standards it should select for

review, including detailed explanations

and reference to any studies that

support that recommendations, EPA

does not intend to review recently

promulgated standards as part of this

effort. The standards EPA ultimately

will select for review and evaluation

will be those that could potentially have

a major impact on children’s health as

a result of reevaluation and vision.

These standards would generally be

those where children’s health was not

considered in the original development

of the standard; or, where children’s

health was considered but new data

suggest the standard does not

adequately protect children; and where,

if changes were made in the standard,

children’s health protection would be

strengthened.

DATES: Comments must be in writing

and received by December 2, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should

be submitted to Paula R. Goode, Office

of Children’s Health Protection, USEPA

(MS 1102), 401 M Street, SW,

Washington, DC 20460,

goode.paula@epamail.epa.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Paula R. Goode, (202) 260–7778.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Children

in America today inhabit a world that is

very different from that of two

generations past. The traditional

infectious diseases have largely been

eradicated. Infant mortality is greatly

reduced. The expected life span of a

baby born now in the United States is

more than two decades longer than that

of a child born at the beginning of the

twentieth century. However, children

today face hazards in the environment

that were neither known nor suspected

only a few decades ago. At least 75,000

new synthetic chemical compounds

have been developed and introduced

into commerce; fewer than half of these

compounds have been tested for their

potential toxicity to humans, and fewer

still have been assessed for their specific

toxicity to children.

Children’s exposures to lead,

pesticides, PCBs, and toxic air

pollutants are widespread. Compared to

adults, children are particularly

vulnerable and at increased risk from

many environmental threats in four

ways (1) Children’s organ systems are

still developing—including rapid

changes in growth and development

immature body organs and tissues, and

weaker immune systems—which makes

them more susceptible to environmental

hazards; (2) pound-for-pound, children

breathe more air, drink more water and

eat more food than adults; (3) children’s

exposures to toxins are further

enhanced by their play close to the

ground and their normal hand-to-mouth

activity; and (4) children have more

future years of life than adults and are

more susceptible to chronic, multi-stage

diseases such as cancer or

neurodegenerative disease that may be

triggered by early exposures.

Environmental health hazards that

threaten children range from air

pollution that triggers asthma attacks

and lead-based paint in older housing,

to treatment-resistant microbes in

drinking water and persistent industrial

chemicals that may cause cancer to

induce reproductive or developmental

changes.

EPA Administrator Carol Browner set

forth a National Agenda to Protect

Children’s Health From Environmental

Threats in EPA’s publication,

Environmental Health Treats to

Children, September, 1996, to ensure

that children receive the protection they

need and deserve, and help fulfill our

nation’s obligation to protect future

generations. This agenda includes a

commitment to ‘‘ensure that all

standards EPA sets are protective of the

potentially heightened risks faced by

children, and that the most significant

existing standards be reevaluated.’’

As stated in the Summary section of

this notice, EPA will select and then

review and evaluate five human health

and environmental protection standards

that establish discrete regulatory levels.

The standards most suitable for this

effort are those that if revised as a result

of the review and evaluation, would

strengthen and increase children’s

environmental health protection. The

term ‘‘standard’’ for purposes of this

notice means national standards

established by EPA that identify discrete

regulatory levels related to human

health and environmental protection.

Examples of such standards include

pesticide tolerances that establish

allowable levels of pesticide residues in

food under the Federal Food, Drug, and

Cosmetic Act, Maximum Contaminant

Levels that establish allowable levels of

contaminants in drinking water under

the Safe Drinking Water Act; and,

health-based regulations that establish

acceptable levels for air pollutants

under the Clean Air Act. EPA will

consider comments and

recommendations on such standards in

all the environmental media (air, water,

soil, etc.). The term ‘‘standard’’ as used

in this Notice does not include

standards establishing analytical

methods, technology-based standards,

or site specific actions (such as facility
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 192 / Friday, October 3, 1997 / Notices 51855

permits under the National Pollution

Discharge Elimination System, or

Records of Decision for cleanup of

Superfund sites).

In selecting the five standards for

review and reevaluation EPA will

consider a variety of factors including

any new information since the

standards were originally promulgated,

as follows:

• New scientific information or new

data regarding adverse health effects on

children;

• New understanding of routes of

exposure to children;

• Whether the regulated substance/

pollutant is persistent and

bioaccumulative;

• New methodologies of evaluating

human health risks;

• New epidemiology studies;

• New toxicity studies; and

• New environmental monitoring

studies.

As part of this effort, EPA will

convene a balanced, broad-based

external Advisory Committee, chartered

under the Federal Advisory Committee

Act, Public Law 92–463, to give advice

to the Administrator on various issues

of children’s environmental health

protection. Notice of the establishment

of this Children’s Health Protection

Advisory Committee (CHPAC) was

published on September 9, 1997 (62 FR

47494). CHPAC will consider

recommendations received by EPA as a

result of this notice and other

information. Comments and other

information received as a result on this

notice will be placed in a docket that

will be established for CHPAC. EPA will

ask the Committee to recommend five

standards that EPA should reevaluate

with respect to children’s health

protection. CHPAC meetings will be

announced in the Federal Register and

open to the public. The Administrator

will consider the Committee’s

recommendations and the

recommendations and comments

received in response to this Notice. EPA

intends to announce the five selected

standards in a Federal Register notice in

early Summer of 1998.

This EPA effort will help fulfill

President Clinton’s Executive Order

13045, Protection of Children from

Environmental Health Risks and Safety

Risks, signed on April 21, 1997. This

Order, in part, directs each Federal

agency to set as a high priority the

identification and assessment of

environmental health risks and safety

risks that may disproportionately affect

children; and ensure that its policies,

programs, activities, and standards

address disproportionate risks to

children that result from environmental

health risks or safety risks.

Dated: September 26, 1997.

E. Ramona Trovato,

Director, Office of Children’s Health

Protection.

[FR Doc. 97–26320 Filed 10–2–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560–50–M

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AGENCY

[FRL–5902–8]

Consent Decree: Phoenix Federal

Implementation Plan for Carbon

Monoxide

AGENCY: Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of proposed consent

decree; request for public comment.

SUMMARY: In accordance with Section

113(g) of the Clean Air Act (‘‘Act’’),

notice is hereby given of a proposed

consent decree in litigation instituted

against the Environmental Protection

Agency (‘‘EPA’’) regarding

implementation of the contingency

measure provisions of the Carbon

Monoxide (CO) Federal Implementation

Plan (FIP) for Phoenix, Arizona.

EPA originally promulgated CO FIP

contingency measures for Phoenix in

1991 pursuant to a court order in

Delaney v. EPA, 898 F.2d 687 (9th Cir.

1990). 56 FR 5458 (Feb. 11, 1991). In

1996 EPA approved CO contingency

measures submitted by the State of

Arizona, and withdrew the previously

promulgated FIP contingency measures

for Phoenix. 61 FR 51599 (Oct. 3, 1996).

This action was challenged by the

Arizona Center for Law in the Pubic

Interest (ACLPI), and was recently

overturned by the Ninth Circuit Court of

Appeals. DiSimone v. Browner, 1997

U.S. App. LEXIS 19796 (July 31, 1997).

Subsequently, ACLPI filed an action

in District Court to compel

implementation of the FIP contingency

provisions. DiSimone v. Browner, No.

CIV 97–1987 PHXRGS, D. Ariz. In order

to resolve this matter without protracted

litigation, ACLPI and EPA have reached

agreement on a proposed consent decree

which has been signed by the parties

and lodged with the court on Sept. 25,

1997. The consent decree provides that,

unless EPA previously approves a state

submitted attainment demonstration for

CO for Phoenix, EPA will sign an initial

notice of proposed rulemaking pursuant

to the FIP contingency provisions by no

later than Nov. 26, 1998, and will

complete the remainder of the

requirements of the FIP contingency

provisions according to the timeframes

specified in those procedures.

For a period of thirty [30] days

following the date of publication of this

notice, the Agency will receive written

comments relating to the proposed

consent decree. EPA or the Department

of Justice may withhold or withdraw

consent to the proposed consent decree

if the comments disclose facts or

circumstances that indicate that such

consent is inappropriate, improper,

inadequate, or inconsistent with the

requirements of the Act.

Copies of the proposed consent decree

are available from Sara Schneeberg, Air

and Radiation Division (2344), Office of

General Counsel, U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency, 401 M Street, SW,

Washington, D.C. 20460, (202) 260–

5145. Written comments should be sent

to Sara Schneeberg at the above address

and must be submitted on or before

November 3, 1997.

Dated: September 26, 1997.

Scott C. Fulton,

Acting General Counsel.

[FR Doc. 97–26318 Filed 10–2–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560–50–M

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AGENCY

[ER–FRL–5484–8]

Environmental Impact Statements;

Notice of Availability

Responsible Agency: Office of Federal

Activities, General Information (202)

564–7167 or (202) 564–7153.

Weekly receipt of Environmental

Impact Statements Filed September 22,

1997 Through September 26, 1997

Pursuant to 40 CFR 1506.9.

EIS No. 970372, DRAFT EIS, FRC, MT,

Missouri-Madison Hydroelectric

(FERC No. 2188) Project, Issuing a

New licence (Relicense) for Nine

Dams and Associated Facilities, MT,

Due: December 2, 1997, Contact: John

McEachern (202) 219–3056.

EIS No. 970373, FINAL EIS, AFS, UT,

Western Uinta Basin Oil and Gas

Leasing, Implementation, Federal Oil

and Gas Estate on Land Administrated

by the Uinta and Ashley National

Forests in the western portion of the

Uinta Basin, Wasatch and Duchesne

Counties, UT, Due: November 3, 1997,

Contact: Laura Jo West (801) 781–

5167.

EIS No. 970374, DRAFT EIS, COE, CA,

San Francisco Bay to Stockton Phase

III (John F. Baldwin) Navigation

Channel Project, Construction and

Operation, For Deliver of Petroleum to

Refineries, Storage Terminals and