18348 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 72 / Tuesday, April 15, 1997 / Notices

by telephone at (202) 260–2711 or FAX

at (202) 260–7906.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Agenda

I. Opening Remarks—Jim Makris

(8:30–9:00).

II. Electronic Submission Workgroup

Discussion of Issues (9:00–11:45).

III. Comments from the public on

Electronic Submission (11:45–12:00)

Lunch on your own (12:00–1:30).

IV. How to expand public outreach

and understanding in the risk

management program (1:30–3:00) Break

(3:00–3:15).

V. Other Business (3:15–4:15).

VI. Comments from the public (4:15–

4:30).

Members of the public who wish to

make a brief oral presentation in person

in Washington D.C. to the

Subcommittee at the May 9 meeting,

must contact Karen Shanahan in writing

(by letter, fax, or email—see previously

stated information) no later than 12

noon Eastern Time, May 2, 1997 in

order to be included on the agenda.

Written comments may be submitted to

the Accident Prevention Subcommittee

or the Electronic Submission

Workgroup up through the date of the

meeting. Please address such material to

Karen Shanahan at the above address.

The Accident Prevention

Subcommittee expects that public

statements presented at its meetings will

not be repetitive or previously

submitted oral or written statements. In

general, opportunities for oral comment

will be limited to no more than three

minutes per speaker and no more than

thirty minutes total. Written comments

(twelve copies) received sufficiently

prior to a meeting date (usually one

week prior to a meeting or

teleconference), may be mailed to the

Subcommittee prior to its meeting.

Additional information on the

Accident Prevention Subcommittee and

Electronic Submission Workgroup are

available on the Internet at: http://

www.epa.gov/swercepp/rmp-wg.html

If you would like to automatically

receive future information on the

Accident Prevention Subcommittee and

the Electronic Submission Workgroup

by email, please send an email to Karen

Shanahan at:

shanahan.karen@epamail.epa.gov

requesting to be put on the email list for

these groups.

Dated: April 7, 1997.

Karen Shanahan,

Designated Federal Official.

[FR Doc. 97–9693 Filed 4–14–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560–50–U

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AGENCY

[FRL–5811–8]

EPA’s National Drinking Water

Contaminant Occurrence Data Base

AGENCY: Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Announcement of a stakeholder

meeting on the National Drinking Water

Contaminant Occurrence Data Base.

SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) has scheduled

a two-day public meeting on EPA’s

development of a National Drinking

Water Contaminant Occurrence Data

Base. The purpose of this meeting is to

have a dialogue with stakeholders and

the public at large on the process of

assembling and maintaining a national

drinking water contaminant occurrence

data base. In recent months, EPA has

been working on a Conceptual

Approach for the National Drinking

Water Contaminant Occurrence Data

Base. At the upcoming meeting, EPA is

seeking input from key national, State,

individual stakeholders and other

interested parties concerning the

development and maintenance of the

national drinking water contaminant

occurrence data base, including such

issues as the structure and design of the

data base, data input parameters and

requirements, and the use and

interpretation of data. EPA encourages

the full participation of stakeholders

throughout this process.

DATES: The stakeholder meeting on the

National Drinking Water Contaminant

Occurrence Data Base will be held on

May 21–22, 1997 from 1:00–5:00 p.m.

EST on May 21 and 9:00 a.m. to 4:00

p.m. EST on May 22.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held in

the Large Conference Room 6228 at

USEPA Ariel Rios, 1200 Pennsylvania

Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20044.

For additional information, please

contact the Safe Drinking Water Hotline,

at phone: (800) 426–4791, fax: (703)

285–1101, or by e-mail at hotlinesdwa@epamail.epa.gov. Members of the

public wishing to attend the meeting

may register by phone by contacting the

Safe Drinking Water Hotline by May 5,

1997. Those registered for the meeting

will receive background materials prior

to the meeting.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For

general information about the meeting

logistics, please contact the Safe

Drinking Water Hotline, at phone: (800)

426–4791, fax: (703) 285–1101, or by email at: hotline-sdwa@epamail.epa.gov.

For other information on the National

Drinking Water Contaminant

Occurrence Data Base please contact

Charles Job, at the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency, Phone: 202–260–

7084, Fax: 202–260–3762.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Background

Background on the National Drinking

Water Contaminant Occurrence Data

Base

The SDWA, as amended in 1996,

states that: Not later than three years

after the date of enactment of the Safe

Drinking Water Act Amendments of

1996, the Administrator shall assemble

and maintain a national drinking water

contaminant occurrence data base using

information on the occurrence of both

regulated and unregulated contaminants

in public water systems obtained under

section 1445(a)(1)(A) or section

1445(a)(2) and reliable information from

other public and private sources. The

National Drinking Water Contaminant

Occurrence Data Base is required to be

developed and maintained by August 1,

1999.

B. Request for Stakeholder Involvement

The upcoming meeting deals

specifically with EPA’s efforts to

develop the National Drinking Water

Contaminant Occurrence Data Base.

EPA’s goal is to use the data to support

ongoing evaluations of currently

regulated contaminants as well as in

making determinations of which

contaminants to regulate in the future

under section 1412(b)(1) with respect to

the occurrence of a contaminant in

drinking water at a level of public

health concern. The National

Contaminant Occurrence Data Base will

be considered in the listing of

contaminants on the Drinking Water

Contaminant Candidate List which will

be used as a first step in identifying

contaminants to regulate. The

prioritization of contaminants for

drinking water regulation (and for

development of health advisories,

research or monitoring efforts) would

ensure that EPA uses its limited

resources in an efficient manner. The

data base will be used to assist in

establishing these priorities.

The meeting will be divided into two

parts. On May 21, an overview of the

conceptual approach and data bases

which may contribute data to the

National Occurrence Data Base will be

presented. This time will also be used

for stakeholder comments. On May 22,

a structured technical session is

planned to elicit responses on specific

interest in data base design and

structure, data input and requirements,
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 72 / Tuesday, April 15, 1997 / Notices 18349

and use and interpretation; as well as

which contaminants should be included

in the data base.

EPA is working on a Conceptual

Approach for the National Drinking

Water Contaminant Occurrence Data

Base. This approach considers factors

such as what data are needed in the data

base, how is the database going to be

used, what information is available for

the database, how can databases be

merged, and how to address data

uncertainty with quality assurance and

quality control. Both chemical

contaminants and microbes will be

considered in the National Drinking

Water Contaminant Occurrence Data

Base development process. Background

material on the Conceptual Approach

and the process to develop and

implement the National Drinking Water

Contaminant Occurrence Data Base will

be sent to all registered participants in

advance of the meeting. The specific

issues for discussion at the meeting will

be based on this material and will

include (but may not be limited to) the

following:

1. What type of information does the

National Occurrence Data Base have to

contain for EPA to make determinations

on what contaminants need further

action?

2. What standard methodologies/

analytical techniques and units of

measure will be acceptable to populate

the National Occurrence Data Base?

3. What should be the quality

assurance/quality control procedures for

accepting data into the National

Occurrence Data Base and for

determining its usefulness for a specific

end-use?

4. What should be the criteria for

accepting data from external and

internal data sources? What type of data

should be required for data quality?

Should there be different levels of data

quality for different uses?

5. What are the sources of data that

can be used to populate the National

Occurrence Data Base and are they

available in a form that can be used by

the EPA and be accessible to the public?

6. How should linkages to other

databases be accommodated?

7. Are there certain data fields that

EPA should structure its query

functions around?

8. In what forms should the data in

the National Occurrence Data Base be

made readily accessible to the public?

9. In making the National Occurrence

Data Base publicly accessible should the

information be available electronically?

What kind of user interface is

important?

10. Should the National Occurrence

Data Base information be able to be

graphically displayed?

11. What data does your organization

possess that is relevant to the National

Occurrence Data Base?

12. What specific data fields should

be included in the National Occurrence

Data Base?

13. What historical data should be

included in the data base?

EPA has convened this public

meeting to hear the views of

stakeholders on the Conceptual

Approach, concerning the development

and maintenance of a National Drinking

Water Contaminant Occurrence Data

Base. The public is invited to provide

comments on the issues listed above or

other issues related to the National

Drinking Water Contaminant

Occurrence Data Base during the May

21–22, 1997 meeting.

Dated: March 25, 1997.

Cynthia Dougherty,

Director, Office of Ground Water and Drinking

Water.

[FR Doc. 97–9694 Filed 4–14–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AGENCY

[FRL–5811–9]

Science Advisory Board Notification of

Public Advisory Committee Meeting;

Open Meeting

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory

Committee Act, Public Law 92–463,

notice is hereby given that the Human

Exposure and Health Subcommittee

(HEHS) of the Science Advisory Board’s

(SAB) Integrated Risk Project will meet

on May 5–6, 1997, at the Environmental

Protection Agency’s Waterside Mall

Complex, 401 M Street, SW,

Washington, DC 20460 in Room 17 of

the Washington Information Center. For

convenient access, members of the

public should use the public entrances

to the Waterside Mall commercial area

on either the ‘‘I’’ or ‘‘M’’ street side of

the complex. The meeting will begin at

9:00 a.m. and end no later than 5:00

p.m. on each day. All times noted are

Eastern Time. All meetings are open to

the public. Due to limited space, seating

at meetings will be on a first-come basis.

The main purpose of the meeting is to

discuss human exposure (and their

consequences) to various pollutants and

to consider the potential for risk

reduction. The Subcommittee’s

activities are part of an SAB project to

update the 1990 SAB report, Reducing

Risk: Setting Priorities and Strategies for

Environmental Protection. In a letter

dated October 25, 1995, to Dr.

Matanoski, Chair of the SAB Executive

Committee, Deputy Administrator Fred

Hansen charged the SAB to: (1) Develop

an updated ranking of the relative risk

of different environmental problems

based upon explicit scientific criteria;

(2) provide an assessment of techniques

and criteria that could be used to

discriminate among emerging

environmental risks and identify those

that merit serious, near-term Agency

attention; (3) assess the potential for risk

reduction and propose alternative

technical risk reduction strategies for

the environmental problems identified;

and (4) identify the uncertainties and

data quality issues associated with the

relative rankings. The project will be

conducted by several SAB panels,

including HEHS, working at the

direction of an ad hoc Steering

Committee established by the Executive

Committee.

Single copies of Reducing Risk can be

obtained by contacting the SAB’s

Committee Evaluation and Support Staff

(1400), 401 M Street, SW, Washington,

DC 20460, telephone (202) 260–8414, or

fax (202) 260–1889. Members of the

public desiring additional information

about the meeting, including an agenda,

should contact Ms. Mary Winston, Staff

Secretary, Science Advisory Board

(1400), US EPA, 401 M Street, SW,

Washington DC 20460, by telephone at

(202) 260–8414, fax at (202) 260–7118,

or via the INTERNET at:

winston.mary@epamail.epa.gov.

Anyone wishing to make an oral

presentation at the meeting must contact

Mr. Samuel Rondberg, Designated

Federal Official for the HEHS, in

writing, no later than 4:00 p.m., April

28, 1997, bay fax at (202) 260–7118, or

via the INTERNET at

rondberg.sam@epamail.epa.gov. The

request should identify the name of the

individual who will make the

presentation and an outline of the issues

to be addressed. At least 35 copies of

any written comments to the Committee

are to be given to Mr. Rondberg no later

than the time of the presentation for

distribution to the Committee and the

interested public. See below for

additional information on providing

comments to the SAB.

Providing Oral or Written Comments at

SAB Meetings

The Science Advisory Board expects

that public statements presented at its

meetings will not be repetitive of

previously submitted oral or written

statements. In general, each individual

or group making an oral presentation

will be limited to a total time of ten