Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Market-Based Stormwater Management in the Shepherd Creek Watershed in Cincinnati, OH; EPA ICR Number 2178.01, OMB Control Number, 40329-40330 [05-13783]

Agencies

• ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 133 (Wednesday, July 13, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40329-40330]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-13783]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[ORD-2005-0003, FRL-7937-9]


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request; Market-Based Stormwater Management in the Shepherd 
Creek Watershed in Cincinnati, OH; EPA ICR Number 2178.01, OMB Control 
Number

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 
et seq.), this document announces that EPA is planning to submit a 
proposed Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB). This is a request for a new collection. 
Before submitting the ICR to OMB for review and approval, EPA is 
soliciting comments on specific aspects of the proposed information 
collection as described below.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before September 12, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing docket ID number ORD-2005-
0003, to EPA online using EDOCKET (our preferred method), by e-mail to 
ord.docket@epa.gov, or by mail to: EPA Docket Center, Environmental 
Protection Agency, ORD Docket, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, 
DC 20460.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Hale W. Thurston, ORD, NRMRL, Mail 
Code 499, 26 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Cincinnati, OH, 45268; 
telephone number: 513.569.7627; fax number: 513.487.2511; e-mail 
address: thurston.hale@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: EPA has established a public docket for this 
ICR under Docket ID number ORD-2005-0003, which is available for public 
viewing at the ORD Docket in the EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), EPA West, 
Room B102, 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 
Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the ORD 
Docket is (202) 566-0226. An electronic version of the public docket is 
available through EPA Dockets (EDOCKET) at https://www.epa.gov/edocket. 
Use EDOCKET to obtain a copy of the draft collection of information, 
submit or view public comments, access the index listing of the 
contents of the public docket, and to access those documents in the 
public docket that are available electronically. Once in the system, 
select ``search,'' then key in the docket ID number identified above.
    Any comments related to this ICR should be submitted to EPA within 
60 days of this notice. EPA's policy is that public comments, whether 
submitted electronically or in paper, will be made available for public 
viewing in EDOCKET as EPA receives them and without change, unless the 
comment contains copyrighted material, CBI, or other information whose 
public disclosure is restricted by statute. When EPA identifies a 
comment containing copyrighted material, EPA will provide a reference 
to that material in the version of the comment that is placed in 
EDOCKET. The entire printed comment, including the copyrighted 
material, will be available in the public docket. Although identified 
as an item in the official docket, information claimed as CBI, or whose 
disclosure is otherwise restricted by statute, is not included in the 
official public docket, and will not be available for public viewing in 
EDOCKET. For further information about the electronic docket, see EPA's 
Federal Register notice describing the electronic docket at 67 FR 38102 
(May 31, 2002), or go to https://www.epa.gov./edocket.
    Affected entities: Entities potentially affected by this action are 
residents of Mount-Airy/Shepherd Creek area of Cincinnati, OH.
    Title: Market-based Stormwater Management in the Shepherd Creek 
Watershed in Cincinnati, Ohio.
    Abstract: The Sustainable Technology Division (STD) of the National 
Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) in the Office of Research 
and Development (ORD) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 
is proposing to conduct a survey of individual property owners in the 
Shepherd Creek watershed in Cincinnati, OH. The survey will elicit how 
residents value the voluntary implementation of on-site, structural 
best management practices as part of a comprehensive stormwater runoff 
control policy. The focus will be on estimating the minimum monetary 
value the landowner would judge necessary to dedicate a portion of 
their property to implementation of best management practices that 
reduce runoff.
    This data collection is motivated by the current stormwater-related 
problems within the United States in general, and in the greater 
Cincinnati metropolitan area in particular. Urban and suburban 
development changes the natural landscape making it more impervious to 
rain and snow. The resulting stormwater runoff is one of the most 
significant contributors to water quality degradation in the United 
States through larger and more frequent floods, increased erosion of 
stream beds and banks, disruption of natural habitat in receiving 
waters, and increased pollution loadings of metals, toxics, and 
nutrients. Precipitation falls over large geographic areas, and the 
resulting runoff will flow across a myriad of parcels with varying land 
uses, which are, in turn, under the control of numerous property 
owners. Perhaps in reaction to these conditions, stormwater control 
policies have concentrated on solutions that build centralized 
detention BMPs to temporarily hold excess runoff within the storm sewer 
system. An alternative, decentralized approach to stormwater control 
would be to distribute BMPs at terrestrial locations throughout the 
watershed, thus reducing runoff before it reaches the sewer system. 
This approach provides both hydrological benefits of reducing 
degradation of receiving waters, which would likely continue due to 
discharges from a centralized sewer conveyance system, as well as 
potential cost-savings in terms of meeting water quality standards, 
habitat renewal, and other environmental goals.
    Although the installation, operation, and maintenance costs for 
best management practices are relatively well known, these are only a 
portion of

[[Page 40330]]

the total costs of BMP implementation. Full consideration of costs 
would include consideration of the opportunity costs (e.g., the costs 
to the landowner of partial loss of use of property). EPA anticipates 
that such opportunity costs associated with BMP implementation would be 
borne by individual landowners, and that such costs may comprise the 
largest component of total costs associated with runoff abatement. To 
better understand the economic potential of implementation of a 
voluntary and decentralized runoff control program, EPA proposes to 
assess the opportunity costs associated with implementation of best 
management practices to abate the adverse effects of storm water 
runoff. The proposed survey would provide a means of gathering this 
information. It also would ask 10-12 non-invasive demographic 
questions, required for the proper statistical analysis of the data.
    The survey would be conducted using six (6) groups of ten (10) 
residential landowners from the Shepherd Creek watershed. Participation 
would be completely voluntary. Residents who wish to participate in the 
study would be identified and recruited through a liaison from the 
Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District, who is familiar 
with the community. The survey would be conducted using a computer 
simulated nonuniform-price, sequential auction for the procurement of 
best management practices. Participants would be presented with a 
selection of best management practices that should be feasible for use 
on their actual parcel. Information regarding how each BMP should 
perform on their specific parcel, as well as the installation, 
operation, and maintenance costs, would be provided to the landowner. 
In the computer-simulated auction, participants who wish to implement 
BMPs would submit bids that consist of the size and type of the BMPs 
and the minimum compensation that the participant landowner would 
accept. The goal of the simulation would be to elicit the minimum 
compensation levels that individual landowners will accept in exchange 
for implementation of the best management practices. This information 
would then be used to estimate the minimum compensation that would 
likely be necessary to achieve control stormwater runoff through such 
on-site, structural best management practices.
    Data gathered would be stored on U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency (EPA) computer files that would protect the confidentiality of 
individual participants. Summary results would be made available to the 
public. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not 
required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays 
a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control numbers for EPA's 
regulations in 40 CFR are listed in 40 CFR part 9.
    The EPA solicits comments in this proposal to:
    (i) Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
    (ii) Evaluate the accuracy of the Agency's estimate of the burden 
of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of 
the methodology and assumptions used;
    (iii) Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information 
to be collected; and
    (iv) Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic 
submission of responses.
    Burden Statement: The total number of expected participants would 
be 60. The cost to participants would be their time, at an estimate 
total of 120 hours collectively. EPA would compensate participants for 
their participation at a minimum rate of $24.95 per hour. An additional 
bonus amount of compensation would vary with their performance in the 
auction. This is a commonly accepted practice used in experimental 
economics, in order to overcome hypothetical survey bias.
    Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources 
expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or 
provide information to or for a Federal agency. This includes the time 
needed to review instructions; develop, acquire, install, and utilize 
technology and systems for the purposes of collecting, validating, and 
verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and 
disclosing and providing information; adjust the existing ways to 
comply with any previously applicable instructions and requirements; 
train personnel to be able to respond to a collection of information; 
search data sources; complete and review the collection of information; 
and transmit or otherwise disclose the information.

    Dated: July 5, 2005.
Sally C. Gutierrez,
Acting Director, National Risk Management Research Laboratory.
[FR Doc. 05-13783 Filed 7-12-05; 8:45 am]
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