Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 16 / Tuesday, January 27, 2009 / Notices 4751 

Description Amount 

Equipment ..................................... 0 

Supplies ........................................ 0 

All other expenses ........................ 0 

Average Annual Cost ................... 7,500 

b. OCR 

OCR cannot conduct its work without 

collecting information through its 

proposed complaint forms. Even if OCR 

did not use complaint forms and only 

took information orally, it would still 

have to capture the same information in 

order to begin processing a complaint. 

Therefore, the incremental cost to OCR 

of processing the information collected 

from the complaint form is minimal and 

is equivalent to approximately 0.05 FTE 

or $7,500 per year with virtually no new 

overhead costs. 

Description Amount 

Personnel & Support Staff ............ $7,500 

Consultant (sub-contractor) services ............................................ 0 

Equipment ..................................... 0 

Supplies ........................................ 0 

All other expenses ........................ 0 

Average Annual Cost ................... 7,500 

Request for Comments 

In accordance with the above-cited 

Paperwork Reduction Act legislation, 

comments on the above-described 

AHRQ and OCR information collection 

to implement the Patient Safety Act are 

requested with regard to any of the 

following: (a) Whether the proposed 

collection of information is necessary 

for the proper performance of AHRQ’s 

health care research, quality 

improvement and information 

dissemination functions, including 

whether the information will have 

practical utility; (b) the accuracy of 

AHRQ’s estimate of burden (including 

hours and costs) of the proposed 

collection(s) of information; (c) ways to 

enhance the quality, utility, and clarity 

of the information to be collected; and 

(d) ways to minimize the burden of the 

collection of information upon the 

respondents, including the use of 

automated collection techniques or 

other forms of information technology. 

Comments submitted in response to 

this notice will be summarized and 

included in the Agency’s subsequent 

request for OMB approval of the 

proposed information collection. All 

comments will become a matter of 

public record. 

Dated: January 11, 2009. 

Carolyn M. Clancy, 

Director, AHRQ. 

[FR Doc. E9–1009 Filed 1–26–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4160–90–M 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Agency for Toxic Substances and 

Disease Registry 

[ATSDR–251] 

Availability of the Report ‘‘ATSDR 

Studies on Chemical Releases in the 

Great Lakes Region’’ 

AGENCY: Agency for Toxic Substances 

and Disease Registry (ATSDR), 

Department of Health and Human 

Services (HHS). 

ACTION: Notification of publication. 

SUMMARY: This report responds to a 

request from the International Joint 

Commission (IJC), the binational 

organization that works to implement 

the Great Lakes Water Quality 

Agreement (GLWQA) between the U.S. 

and Canada. The GLWQA calls for the 

two nations to define ‘‘the threat to 

human health from critical pollutants’’ 

found in the Great Lakes basin. 

This notice announces the availability 

of the report entitled ‘‘ATSDR Studies 

on Chemical Releases in the Great Lakes 

Region’’. This report summarizes 

previously-published public health 

assessment products and chemical 

release information for the 26 U.S. 

AOCs and 54 counties that are in close 

geographic proximity to those AOCs. 

This is a descriptive report that does not 

make associations between health 

outcomes and chemical exposures. The 

compilation of environmental data, 

gathered by ATSDR and the 

Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA), is intended to help decisionmakers set future priorities. 

ADDRESSES: Address all comments 

concerning this notice to Ms. Olga 

Dawkins, ATSDR, Division of 

Toxicology and Environmental 

Medicine, 1600 Clifton Road, NE., MS 

F–32, Atlanta, Georgia 30333. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Bruce Fowler, PhD, Division of 

Toxicology and Environmental 

Medicine, Agency for Toxic Substances 

and Disease Registry, Mailstop F–32, 

1600 Clifton Road, NE., Atlanta, Georgia 

30333, telephone (770) 488–7250. 

Electronic access to these documents is 

also available at the ATSDR Web site: 

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

geographic focus of this report is a set 

of 26 ‘‘Areas of Concern’’ (AOCs) along 

Great Lakes streams, rivers, and lakes. 

These AOCs are defined under the 

Agreement as ecologically degraded 

geographic areas requiring remediation. 

Much of the available data pertain to 

counties, and not to AOCs. Some AOCs 

occupy small parts of a single county, 

while others may reach across more 

than one county. The data come from 

publicly available data sets provided by 

ATSDR and the U.S. EPA. 

The GLWQA defines ‘‘critical 

pollutants’’ as substances that persist in 

the environment, bioaccumulate in fish 

and wildlife, and are toxic to humans 

and animals. There are 12 categories of 

critical pollutants. This report 

emphasizes the critical pollutants 

(within the constraints imposed by 

using existing data) but also presents 

information on other pollutants, when 

such information is available and 

relevant. 

This report compiles and presents 

previously collected environmental data 

from four sources: 

• Data on hazardous waste sites in 

AOC counties, from evaluations 

prepared by the Agency for Toxic 

Substances and Disease Registry 

(ATSDR); 

• Chemical release data from the U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency’s 

(EPA) Toxic Release Inventory (TRI); 

• Data on pollutant discharges into 

water, from EPA’s National Pollutant 

Discharge Elimination System (NPDES); 

• Data on ‘‘beneficial use 

impairments’’ such as wildlife and 

drinking water advisories, from each of 

the Great Lakes states. 

These data are presented in three 

ways: In text, in tables, and in 

Geographic Information System-based 

(GIS) maps created by ATSDR for each 

of the 26 U.S. AOCs. 

This is a descriptive report that does 

not make associations between health 

outcomes and chemical exposures. The 

compilation of environmental data, 

gathered by ATSDR and EPA, is 

intended to help decision-makers set 

future priorities. 

Dated: January 20, 2009. 

Ken Rose, 

Director, Office of Policy, Planning, and 

Evaluation National Center for Environmental 

Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and 

Disease Registry. 

[FR Doc. E9–1597 Filed 1–26–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4163–70–P 

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