Document ID: EPA-HQ-ORD-2010-0534-0001
Agency: epa
Document Type: Notice
Title: Draft of the 2010 Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System
Posted Date: 2010-06-22T04:00Z

[Federal Register: June 22, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 119)]
[Notices]               
[Page 35457-35458]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr22jn10-51]                         

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-9166-2; Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2010-0534]

 
Draft of the 2010 Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information 
System (CADDIS)

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of external review draft for public review and comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a 
30-day public review and comment period for the draft Web site, ``2010 
release of the Causal Analysis/Diagnosis Decision Information System 
(CADDIS).'' The CADDIS Web site was developed and prepared by EPA's 
National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), in the Office of 
Research and Development (ORD). EPA will consider public comments 
submitted in accordance with this notice and may revise the draft Web 
site thereafter. The draft 2010 CADDIS Web site is available at http://
caddis-review.tetratech-ffx.com/index.html.

DATES: The public comment period begins June 22, 2010, and ends July 
22, 2010. Comments should be in writing and must be received by EPA by 
July 22, 2010.
    Comments may be submitted electronically via http://
www.regulations.gov, by e-mail, by mail, by facsimile, or by hand 
delivery/courier. Please follow the detailed instructions provided in 
the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on the docket, http://
www.regulations.gov, or the public comment period, please contact the 
Office of Environmental Information (OEI) Docket (Mail Code: 2822T), 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., 
Washington, DC 20460; telephone: 202-566-1752; facsimile: 202-566-1753; 
or e-mail: ORD.Docket@epa.gov.
    For technical information, please contact Laurie Alexander, 
National Center for Environmental Assessment (8623P), U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., 
Washington, DC 20460; telephone: 703-347-8630; facsimile: 703-347-8692; 
or e-mail: alexander.laurie@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Information About CADDIS

    Over a thousand water bodies in the United States are listed by 
states as biologically impaired. For many of these sites, the cause of 
impairment is reported as ``unknown.'' Before appropriate management 
actions can be formulated for impaired water bodies, the causes of 
biological impairment (e.g., excess fine sediments, nutrients, or 
toxics) must be identified. Effective causal analyses require knowledge 
of the mechanisms, symptoms, and stressor-response relationships for 
various stressors, as well as the ability to use that knowledge to draw 
appropriate, defensible conclusions. To aid in these causal analyses, 
NCEA developed CADDIS, which is a web-based decision support system 
that will help regional, state, and tribal investigators find, access, 
organize, and share information useful for causal evaluations in 
aquatic systems. CADDIS is based on EPA's Stressor Identification 
process, which is a formal method for identifying causes of impairments 
in aquatic environments. Features include a step-by-step guide to 
conducting causal analysis; examples and applications; a library of 
conceptual models; and an online application for collaborating on 
conceptual diagrams and using them to update and access a database of 
supporting literature, information on basic and advanced data analyses, 
downloadable software tools, and links to outside information sources.

II. How to Submit Comments to the Docket at http://www.regulations.gov

    Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2010-
0534, by one of the following methods:
     http://www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line 
instructions for submitting comments.
     E-mail: ORD.Docket@epa.gov.
     Facsimile: 202-566-1753.
     Mail: Office of Environmental Information (OEI) Docket 
(Mail Code: 2822T), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460. The telephone number is 
202-566-1752. If you provide comments by mail, please submit one 
unbound original with pages numbered consecutively, and three copies of 
the comments. For attachments, provide an index, number pages 
consecutively with the comments, and submit an unbound original and 
three copies.
     Hand Delivery: The OEI Docket is located in the EPA 
Headquarters Docket Center, EPA West Building, Room 3334, 1301 
Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC. The EPA Docket Center Public 
Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through 
Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the

[[Page 35458]]

Public Reading Room is 202-566-1744. Deliveries are only accepted 
during the docket's normal hours of operation, and special arrangements 
should be made for deliveries of boxed information. If you provide 
comments by hand delivery, please submit one unbound original with 
pages numbered consecutively, and three copies of the comments. For 
attachments, provide an index, number pages consecutively with the 
comments, and submit an unbound original and three copies.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-
2010-0534. Please ensure that your comments are submitted within the 
specified comment period. Comments received after the closing date will 
be marked ``late,'' and may only be considered if time permits. It is 
EPA's policy to include all comments it receives in the public docket 
without change and to make the comments available online at http://
www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided, 
unless comments include information claimed to be Confidential Business 
Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted 
by statute. Do not submit information that you consider to be CBI or 
otherwise protected through http://www.regulations.gov or e-mail. The 
http://www.regulations.gov Web site is an ``anonymous access'' system, 
which means that EPA will not know your identity or contact information 
unless you provide it in the body of your comments. If you send e-mail 
comments directly to EPA without going through http://
www.regulations.gov, your e-mail address will be automatically captured 
and included as part of the comments that are placed in the public 
docket and made available on the Internet. If you submit electronic 
comments, EPA recommends that you include your name and other contact 
information in the body of your comments and with any disk or CD-ROM 
you submit. If EPA cannot read your comments due to technical 
difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA may not be 
able to consider your comments. Electronic files should avoid the use 
of special characters and any form of encryption and be free of any 
defects or viruses. For additional information about EPA's public 
docket, visit the EPA Docket Center homepage at http://www.epa.gov/
epahome/dockets.htm.
    Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the http://
www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some 
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information 
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such 
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. 
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically 
at http://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the OEI Docket in the 
EPA Headquarters Docket Center.

    Dated: June 15, 2010.
Rebecca Clark,
Acting Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment.
[FR Doc. 2010-15047 Filed 6-21-10; 8:45 am]
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