Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 123 / Tuesday, June 26, 2018 / Notices 29785 

• Provide specific examples to 

illustrate your concerns, and suggest 

alternatives. 

• Explain your views as clearly as 

possible, avoiding the use of profanity 

or personal threats. 

• Make sure to submit your 

comments by the comment period 

deadline identified. 

When considering submitting CBI, do 

not submit this information to the EPA 

through www.regulations.gov or email. 

Clearly mark the part or all of the 

information that you claim to be CBI. 

For CBI information in a disk or CD– 

ROM that you mail to the EPA, mark the 

outside of the disk or CD–ROM as CBI 

and then identify electronically within 

the disk or CD–ROM the specific 

information that is claimed as CBI. In 

addition to one complete version of the 

comment that includes information 

claimed as CBI, a copy of the comment 

that does not contain the information 

claimed as CBI must be submitted for 

inclusion in the public docket. 

Information so marked will not be 

disclosed except in accordance with 

procedures set forth in 40 Code of 

Federal Regulations (CFR) part 2. 

Dated: June 12, 2018. 

Panagiotis Tsirigotis, 

Director, Office of Air Quality Planning and 

Standards. 

[FR Doc. 2018–13718 Filed 6–25–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–ORD–2018–0274; 

FRL–9979–56–ORD] 

Review of the National Ambient Air 

Quality Standards for Ozone—Call for 

Scientific and Policy-Relevant 

Information 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice; call for information. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing 

that the Office of Air Quality Planning 

and Standards (OAQPS) and the Office 

of Research and Development’s National 

Center for Environmental Assessment 

(NCEA) are preparing an Integrated 

Review Plan (IRP) and an Integrated 

Science Assessment (ISA) as part of the 

review of the air quality criteria and the 

National Ambient Air Quality Standards 

(NAAQS) for ozone (O3) and related 

photochemical oxidants. The IRP will 

summarize the plan for the review, 

including the initial identification of 

policy-relevant issues and questions to 

frame the review. The ISA will build on 

the scientific assessment conducted for 

the last O3 review, focusing on assessing 

newly available information since the 

last assessment. Interested parties are 

invited to assist the EPA by submitting 

information regarding significant new 

O3 research and policy-relevant issues 

for consideration in this review of the 

primary (health-based) and secondary 

(welfare-based) O3 standards. 

DATES: All communications and 

information submitted in response to 

this call for information should be 

received by the EPA by August 27, 2018. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments and 

related information, identified by 

Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–ORD–2018– 

0274 to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: 

http://www.regulations.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

information regarding the IRP, contact 

Dr. Deirdre L. Murphy, OAQPS, 

telephone: 919–541–0729, or email: 

murphy.deirdre@epa.gov. For 

information regarding the ISA, contact 

Dr. Tom Luben, NCEA, telephone: 919– 

541–5762, or email: luben.tom@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Information About the Project 

Section 108(a) of the Clean Air Act 

(CAA or the Act) directs the 

Administrator to identify and list 

certain air pollutants and then issue ‘‘air 

quality criteria’’ for those pollutants. 

The air quality criteria are to 

‘‘accurately reflect the latest scientific 

knowledge useful in indicating the kind 

and extent of all identifiable effects on 

public health or welfare which may be 

expected from the presence of such 

pollutants in the ambient air . . . .’’ 

CAA section 108(a)(2). Under section 

109 of the Act, EPA is then to establish 

NAAQS for each pollutant for which 

EPA has issued criteria. Section 

109(d)(1) of the Act requires periodic 

review and, if appropriate, revision of 

existing air quality criteria to reflect 

advances in scientific knowledge on the 

effects of the pollutant on public health 

and welfare. Under the same provision, 

EPA is also to periodically review and, 

if appropriate, revise the NAAQS, based 

on the revised air quality criteria. 

Section 109(d)(2) of the Act requires 

appointment of an independent 

scientific review committee that is to 

periodically review the existing air 

quality criteria and NAAQS and to 

recommend any new standards and 

revisions of existing criteria and 

standards as may be appropriate. Since 

the early 1980s, the requirement for an 

independent scientific review 

committee has been fulfilled by the 

Clean Air Scientific Advisory 

Committee (CASAC). Section 

109(d)(2)(C) of the Act additionally 

requires the independent scientific 

review committee to advise the EPA 

Administrator of areas in which 

additional knowledge is required to 

appraise the adequacy and basis of 

existing, new, or revised NAAQS; 

describe the research efforts necessary 

to provide the required information; 

advise the EPA Administrator on the 

relative contribution to air pollution 

concentrations of natural as well as 

anthropogenic activity; and, advise the 

EPA Administrator of any adverse 

public health, welfare, social, economic, 

or energy effects which may result from 

various strategies for attainment and 

maintenance of such NAAQS. To ensure 

this final statutory requirement is fully 

met, elsewhere in today’s Federal 

Register we are issuing a call for 

information that would facilitate the 

committee’s consideration of these 

issues. 

In its periodic review of the air 

quality criteria, the EPA reviews the 

currently available scientific 

information and prepares an ISA. The 

ISA and other key documents prepared 

in the review receive independent and 

expert scientific review by the CASAC. 

Photochemical oxidants, including 

O3, are one of six ‘‘criteria’’ pollutants 

for which EPA has established NAAQS, 

and O3 is the current indicator for that 

NAAQS. The O3 NAAQS were most 

recently revised in fall of 2015. In 

consideration of the statutory deadline 

for the next periodic review of the air 

quality criteria and standards, the EPA 

is accelerating initiation of the planning 

phase for the review, including 

development of the IRP for the review. 

The IRP will describe the overall plan 

for the review, outlining the anticipated 

schedule, process, and approaches for 

evaluating the relevant scientific 

information, as well as the key policyrelevant issues that will frame the 

review. We intend that the IRP will 

build upon key documents from the last 

review (available from: https://

www.epa.gov/naaqs/ozone-o3-airquality-standards). Such documents 

include the preamble to the final 

rulemaking decision, which included 

detailed discussions of policy-relevant 

issues central to that review (80 FR 

65292, October 26, 2015), and the 

Integrated Science Assessment (ISA) for 

Ozone and Related Photochemical 

Oxidants (Final Report, Feb. 2013), 

EPA/600/R–10/076F. Interested parties 

are invited to assist the EPA by 

submitting information regarding 

significant new O3 research and policyrelevant issues for consideration in this 

review of the primary (health-based) 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES
29786 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 123 / Tuesday, June 26, 2018 / Notices 

1Available at: https://www.epa.gov/sites/ 

production/files/2018-05/documents/image2018- 

05-09-173219.pdf. 

2The scientific assessment for the last review is 

documented in the Integrated Science Assessment 

for Ozone and Related Photochemical Oxidants 

(Final Report, Feb 2013), EPA 600/R–10/076F. 

3Under CAA section 302(h), effects on welfare 

include, but are not limited to, ‘‘effects on soils, 

water, crops, vegetation, manmade materials, 

animals, wildlife, weather, visibility, and climate, 

damage to and deterioration of property, and 

hazards to transportation, as well as effects on 

economic values and on personal comfort and 

wellbeing.’’ 

and secondary (welfare-based) O3

standards. 

The EPA will consult with the 

CASAC on the IRP and will also solicit 

comments from the public. As the 

review proceeds, the EPA will also 

request CASAC review of, and provide 

an opportunity for public comment on, 

other draft documents prepared for the 

review, which generally include the 

ISA, a risk/exposure assessment (REA), 

as warranted, and a policy assessment 

(PA). The EPA intends to provide the 

CASAC with a standardized set of key 

charge questions to consider in 

providing advice to the Administrator 

throughout the entire review, 

supplementing these questions with 

more detailed requests as necessary. 

More information on the updated 

process for the forthcoming ozone 

NAAQS review, including statutory, 

standardized charge questions, is 

contained in the Administrator’s May 9 

2018 memorandum, ‘‘Back-to-Basics 

Process for Reviewing National Ambient 

Air Quality Standards.’’ 1

The ISA will build on the scientific 

assessment for the last review,2 focusing 

on assessing information newly 

available since the 2013 ISA. With 

regard to development of the ISA, the 

public is encouraged to assist in 

identifying relevant scientific 

information for the review by 

submitting research studies that were 

not part of the prior review, and have 

been published or accepted for 

publication in a peer-reviewed journal. 

The Agency is interested in obtaining 

newly available information, 

particularly concerning toxicological 

studies of effects of controlled exposure 

to O3 on laboratory animals, humans, 

and in vitro systems, as well as 

epidemiologic (observational) studies of 

health effects associated with ambient 

exposures of human populations to O3.

The EPA also seeks recent information 

in other areas of O3 research such as 

chemistry and physics, sources and 

emissions, analytical methodology, 

transport and transformation in the 

environment, ambient concentrations, 

and effects on welfare 3 or the 

environment. This and other selected 

literature relevant to a review of the air 

quality criteria and NAAQS will be 

considered for inclusion in the 

forthcoming ISA. In addition to the 

request to submit current peer reviewed 

research studies, other opportunities for 

submission of new peer-reviewed, 

published (or in-press) papers will be 

available as part of the public comment 

period on the draft ISA that will be 

reviewed by the CASAC. 

II. How To Submit Information and 

Comments to the Docket at 

www.regulations.gov 

Submit your comments and related 

information, identified by Docket ID No. 

EPA–HQ–ORD–2018–0274 to the 

Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://

www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 

instructions for submitting comments. 

Once submitted, comments cannot be 

edited or withdrawn. The EPA may 

publish any comment received to its 

public docket. Do not submit 

electronically any information you 

consider to be Confidential Business 

Information (CBI) or other information 

whose disclosure is restricted by statute. 

Multimedia submissions (audio, video, 

etc.) must be accompanied by a written 

comment. The written comment is 

considered the official comment and 

should include discussion of all points 

you wish to make. The EPA will 

generally not consider comments or 

comment contents located outside of the 

primary submission (e.g., on the web, 

cloud, or other file sharing system). For 

additional submission methods, the full 

EPA public comment policy, 

information about CBI or multimedia 

submissions, and general guidance on 

making effective comments, please visit 

http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/ 

commenting-epa-dockets. 

When submitting comments, 

remember to: 

• Identify the action by docket 

number and other identifying 

information (subject heading, Federal 

Register date and page number). 

• Describe any assumptions and 

provide any technical information and/ 

or data that you used. 

• Provide specific examples to 

illustrate your concerns, and suggest 

alternatives. 

• Explain your views as clearly as 

possible, avoiding the use of profanity 

or personal threats. 

• Make sure to submit your 

comments by the comment period 

deadline identified. 

When considering submitting CBI, do 

not submit this information to the EPA 

through www.regulations.gov or email. 

Clearly mark the part or all of the 

information that you claim to be CBI. 

For CBI information in a disk or CD– 

ROM that you mail to the EPA, mark the 

outside of the disk or CD–ROM as CBI 

and then identify electronically within 

the disk or CD–ROM the specific 

information that is claimed as CBI. In 

addition to one complete version of the 

comment that includes information 

claimed as CBI, a copy of the comment 

that does not contain the information 

claimed as CBI must be submitted for 

inclusion in the public docket. 

Information so marked will not be 

disclosed except in accordance with 

procedures set forth in 40 Code of 

Federal Regulations (CFR) part 2. 

Dated: June 12, 2018. 

Mary Ross, 

Deputy Director, National Center for 

Environmental Assessment. 

[FR Doc. 2018–13716 Filed 6–25–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–ORD–2013–0620 

and Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2014– 

0128; FRL–9979–52–ORD] 

Second External Review Draft 

Integrated Science Assessment for 

Oxides of Nitrogen, Oxides of Sulfur, 

and Particulate Matter—Ecological 

Criteria 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice of public comment 

period. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is announcing a public 

comment period for the draft document 

titled, ‘‘Second External Review Draft 

Integrated Science Assessment for 

Oxides of Nitrogen, Oxides of Sulfur, 

and Particulate Matter—Ecological 

Criteria’’ (EPA/600/R–18/097). The draft 

document was prepared by the National 

Center for Environmental Assessment 

(NCEA) within EPA’s Office of Research 

and Development (ORD) as part of the 

review of the secondary (welfare-based) 

National Ambient Air Quality Standards 

(NAAQS) for oxides of nitrogen, oxides 

of sulfur, and particulate matter. The 

Integrated Science Assessment (ISA), in 

conjunction with additional technical 

and policy assessments, provides the 

scientific basis for EPA’s decisions on 

the adequacy of the current NAAQS and 

the appropriateness of possible 

alternative standards. On January 28, 

2016, EPA released a separate ISA as 

part of an independent review for the 

primary (health-based) NAAQS for 

oxides of nitrogen (EPA/600/R–15/068). 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES