Proposed Information Collection Request; Comment Request; Willingness To Pay Survey To Evaluate Recreational Benefits of Nutrient Reductions in Coastal New England Waters, 78809-78810 [2016-27075]

Download as PDF Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 217 / Wednesday, November 9, 2016 / Notices placed on the list of public speakers for the meeting. Written Statements: Written statements must be received by November 14, 2016 so that the information may be made available to the SIS for consideration. Written statements should be supplied to the DFO in the following formats: One hard copy with original signature and one electronic copy via email. Commenters are requested to provide two versions of each document submitted: One each with and without signatures because only documents without signatures may be published on the GLRI Web page. Accessibility: For information on access or services for individuals with disabilities, please contact the DFO at the phone number or email address noted above, preferably at least seven days prior to the meeting, to give EPA as much time as possible to process your request. Dated: November 2, 2016. Cameron Davis, Senior Advisor to the Administrator. [FR Doc. 2016–27078 Filed 11–8–16; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6560–50–P ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [EPA–HQ–ORD–2016–0632; FRL—9955–05– ORD] Proposed Information Collection Request; Comment Request; Willingness To Pay Survey To Evaluate Recreational Benefits of Nutrient Reductions in Coastal New England Waters Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Notice. AGENCY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to submit an information collection request (ICR), ‘‘Willingness to Pay Survey to Evaluate Recreational Benefits of Nutrient Reductions in Coastal New England Waters’’ (EPA ICR No. 2558.01, OMB Control No. 2080–NEW) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). Before doing so, EPA is soliciting public comments on specific aspects of the proposed information collection as described below. This is a request for approval of a new collection. 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. sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES SUMMARY: VerDate Sep<11>2014 16:29 Nov 08, 2016 Jkt 241001 Comments must be submitted on or before January 9, 2017. ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing Docket ID No. EPA–HQ– ORD–2016–0632, online using www.regulations.gov (our preferred method), by email to Docket_ORD@ epa.gov, or by mail to: EPA Docket Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20460. EPA’s policy is that all comments received will be included in the public docket without change including any personal information provided, unless the comment includes profanity, threats, information claimed to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Marisa Mazzotta, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Atlantic Ecology Division, 27 Tarzwell Drive, Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882; telephone number: 401–782–3026; fax number: 401–782–3139; email address: mazzotta.marisa@epa.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supporting documents which explain in detail the information that the EPA will be collecting are available in the public docket for this ICR. The docket can be viewed online at www.regulations.gov or in person at the EPA Docket Center, WJC West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, DC. The telephone number for the Docket Center is 202–566–1744. For additional information about EPA’s public docket, visit https://www.epa.gov/ dockets. Pursuant to section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, EPA is soliciting comments and information to enable it 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. EPA will consider the DATES: PO 00000 Frm 00038 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 78809 comments received and amend the ICR as appropriate. The final ICR package will then be submitted to OMB for review and approval. At that time, EPA will issue another Federal Register notice to announce the submission of the ICR to OMB and the opportunity to submit additional comments to OMB. Abstract: Researchers at the EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD), Atlantic Ecology Division (AED) are piloting an effort to better understand how reduced water quality due to nutrient enrichment affects the economic prosperity, social capacity, and ecological integrity of coastal New England communities. This project proposes a survey to collect data for a case study of changes in recreation demand and values due to changes in nutrients in northeastern coastal waters. This includes the development of methods and tools for estimating recreational values that can be applied in other locations, either by EPA researchers, EPA’s regional offices or state partners. Our initial geographic focus for these efforts will be Cape Cod, Massachusetts (‘‘the Cape’’; Barnstable County), and New England residents within 100 miles of the Cape. We focus on Cape Cod and its surrounding coastal areas both in order to limit the scope of the work to remain feasible within our research budget and to coordinate this socio-economic analysis with extensive ecological research being conducted on the Cape by ORD researchers, researchers at EPA’s Region 1 office, and other external research groups. Cape Cod is also in the midst of an extensive regional planning effort related to its coastal waters, and this research can provide helpful socio-economic information to decision makers about the use of those waters. Because the 100-mile radius from Cape Cod includes a large area of southern New England and the largest population centers in New England, the results will be more broadly applicable to residents of southern New England. One of the key water quality concerns on Cape Cod, and throughout New England, is nonpoint sources of nitrogen, which lead to ecological impairments in estuaries, with resultant socio-economic impacts. The decisions needed to meet water quality standards are highly complex and involve significant cross-disciplinary challenges in identifying, implementing, and monitoring social and ecological management needs. We will focus on understanding recreational uses as valued economic goods in coastal New England (including beachgoing, swimming, fishing, shellfishing, and boating). E:\FR\FM\09NON1.SGM 09NON1 sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES 78810 Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 217 / Wednesday, November 9, 2016 / Notices As a part of these efforts, EPA’s ORD/ AED is seeking approval to conduct a revealed preference survey to collect data on: People’s saltwater recreational activities; how recreational values are related to water quality; how perceptions of water quality relate to objective measures; the connections between perceptions of water quality, recreational choices and values, and sense of place; and demographic information. If approved, the survey will be administered using a mixedmode approach that includes a mailed invitation to a web survey with an optional paper survey for people who are unable or unwilling to answer the web survey. The survey will be sent to a total of 8,400 residents living in counties where more than 25% of the county’s geographic boundaries falls within 100 miles of the Cape as measured from Bourne, Massachusetts, which is the first town on Cape Cod heading east. This area includes coastal counties of New Hampshire, the eastern half of Massachusetts, all of Rhode Island, and the eastern part of Connecticut. In addition, we will oversample two populations: residents of Cape Cod and people who shellfish recreationally. We will send 750 surveys to each of these groups. ORD will use the survey responses to estimate willingness to pay for changes related to reductions in nutrient and pathogen loadings to coastal New England waters. The analysis relies on state of the art theoretical and statistical tools for non-market welfare analysis. A non-response bias analysis will also be conducted to inform the interpretation and validation of survey responses. All responses to the survey will be kept confidential to the extent provided by law. To ensure that the final survey sample includes a representative and diverse population of individuals, the survey questionnaire will elicit basic demographic information, such as age, race and ethnicity, number of children under 18, type of employment, and income. However, the survey questionnaire will not ask respondents for personal identifying information, such as names or phone numbers. Instead, each survey response will receive a unique identification number. Prior to taking the survey, respondents will be informed that their responses will be kept confidential to the extent provided by law. The name and address of the respondent will not appear in the resulting database, preserving the respondents’ identities. The survey data will be made public only after it has been thoroughly vetted to ensure that all other potentially identifying information has been removed. After VerDate Sep<11>2014 16:29 Nov 08, 2016 Jkt 241001 data entry is complete, the surveys themselves will be destroyed and only respondent codes will remain. Form Numbers: None. Respondents/affected entities: Eligible respondents for the survey are individuals 18 years of age or older who reside in counties where at least 25% of county’s geographic area falls within a 100-mile radius of Cape Cod. This includes coastal counties of New Hampshire, the eastern half of Massachusetts, all of Rhode Island, and the eastern part of Connecticut. The sample will be stratified by geography, with Barnstable County, Massachusetts sampled at a rate 3.06 times higher than the rest of the population in the study area. Additionally, the sample will be a dual-frame sample, where the main frame is the general population addressbased frame of the U.S. Postal Service Delivery Sequence File, and a supplementary frame is the frame of shellfish license holder records. Households will be selected randomly from the DSF, which covers over 97% of residences in the U.S. EPA will request participation from a random stratified sample of 10,270 households in two phases. The first phase, a pretest, will be sent to 370 addresses. The second phase, encompassing full survey administration, will be administered to an additional 9,900 addresses. In each phase, we anticipate a response rate of 27 percent, resulting in 90 and 2,365 completed surveys, respectively, after accounting for expected undeliverable surveys. Respondent’s obligation to respond: voluntary. Estimated number of respondents: 2,455 (total). Frequency of response: The survey is a one-time data collection activity. Total estimated burden: 614 hours (total). Burden is defined at 5 CFR 1320.03(b). Total estimated cost: Assuming 15 minutes are needed to complete the survey, the total respondent cost comes to $21,386 for the pre-test and main survey combined, using an average wage rate for New England of $34.83 from the United States Department of Labor. This would be a one-time expenditure of their time. Changes in Estimates: This is the first notice; there is no change in estimates at this time. Dated: October 31, 2016. Wayne Munns, Division Director, Atlantic Ecology Division. [FR Doc. 2016–27075 Filed 11–8–16; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6560–50–P PO 00000 Frm 00039 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION [CC Docket No. 92–237; DA 16–1240] Next Meeting of the North American Numbering Council Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Notice. AGENCY: In this document, the Commission released a public notice announcing the meeting and agenda of the North American Numbering Council (NANC). The intended effect of this action is to make the public aware of the NANC’s next meeting and agenda. DATES: Thursday, December 1, 2016, 10:00 a.m. ADDRESSES: Requests to make an oral statement or provide written comments to the NANC should be sent to Carmell Weathers, Competition Policy Division, Wireline Competition Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, Portals II, 445 12th Street SW., Room 5–C162, Washington, DC 20554. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carmell Weathers at (202) 418–2325 or Carmell.Weathers@fcc.gov. The fax number is: (202) 418–1413. The TTY number is: (202) 418–0484. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Commission’s document in CC Docket No. 92–237, DA 16–1240 released November 1, 2016. The complete text in this document is available for public inspection and copying during normal business hours in the FCC Reference Information Center, Portals II, 445 12th Street, SW., Room CY–A257, Washington, DC 20554. The North American Numbering Council (NANC) has scheduled a meeting to be held Thursday, December 1, 2016, from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. The meeting will be held at the Federal Communications Commission, Portals II, 445 12th Street, SW., Room TW– C305, Washington, DC. This meeting is open to members of the general public. The FCC will attempt to accommodate as many participants as possible. The public may submit written statements to the NANC, which must be received two business days before the meeting. In addition, oral statements at the meeting by parties or entities not represented on the NANC will be permitted to the extent time permits. Such statements will be limited to five minutes in length by any one party or entity, and requests to make an oral statement must be received two business days before the meeting. People with Disabilities: To request materials in accessible formats for SUMMARY: E:\FR\FM\09NON1.SGM 09NON1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 217 (Wednesday, November 9, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 78809-78810]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-27075]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-ORD-2016-0632; FRL--9955-05-ORD]


Proposed Information Collection Request; Comment Request; 
Willingness To Pay Survey To Evaluate Recreational Benefits of Nutrient 
Reductions in Coastal New England Waters

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to 
submit an information collection request (ICR), ``Willingness to Pay 
Survey to Evaluate Recreational Benefits of Nutrient Reductions in 
Coastal New England Waters'' (EPA ICR No. 2558.01, OMB Control No. 
2080-NEW) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and 
approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 
U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). Before doing so, EPA is soliciting public 
comments on specific aspects of the proposed information collection as 
described below. This is a request for approval of a new collection. 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.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before January 9, 2017.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, referencing Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-
2016-0632, online using www.regulations.gov (our preferred method), by 
email to Docket_ORD@epa.gov, or by mail to: EPA Docket Center, 
Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania 
Ave. NW., Washington, DC 20460.
    EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included in the 
public docket without change including any personal information 
provided, unless the comment includes profanity, threats, information 
claimed to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other 
information whose disclosure is restricted by statute.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Marisa Mazzotta, U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Atlantic Ecology 
Division, 27 Tarzwell Drive, Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882; 
telephone number: 401-782-3026; fax number: 401-782-3139; email 
address: mazzotta.marisa@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supporting documents which explain in detail 
the information that the EPA will be collecting are available in the 
public docket for this ICR. The docket can be viewed online at 
www.regulations.gov or in person at the EPA Docket Center, WJC West, 
Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW., Washington, DC. The telephone 
number for the Docket Center is 202-566-1744. For additional 
information about EPA's public docket, visit https://www.epa.gov/dockets.
    Pursuant to section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, EPA is soliciting 
comments and information to enable it 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. EPA 
will consider the comments received and amend the ICR as appropriate. 
The final ICR package will then be submitted to OMB for review and 
approval. At that time, EPA will issue another Federal Register notice 
to announce the submission of the ICR to OMB and the opportunity to 
submit additional comments to OMB.
    Abstract: Researchers at the EPA's Office of Research and 
Development (ORD), Atlantic Ecology Division (AED) are piloting an 
effort to better understand how reduced water quality due to nutrient 
enrichment affects the economic prosperity, social capacity, and 
ecological integrity of coastal New England communities. This project 
proposes a survey to collect data for a case study of changes in 
recreation demand and values due to changes in nutrients in 
northeastern coastal waters. This includes the development of methods 
and tools for estimating recreational values that can be applied in 
other locations, either by EPA researchers, EPA's regional offices or 
state partners. Our initial geographic focus for these efforts will be 
Cape Cod, Massachusetts (``the Cape''; Barnstable County), and New 
England residents within 100 miles of the Cape. We focus on Cape Cod 
and its surrounding coastal areas both in order to limit the scope of 
the work to remain feasible within our research budget and to 
coordinate this socio-economic analysis with extensive ecological 
research being conducted on the Cape by ORD researchers, researchers at 
EPA's Region 1 office, and other external research groups. Cape Cod is 
also in the midst of an extensive regional planning effort related to 
its coastal waters, and this research can provide helpful socio-
economic information to decision makers about the use of those waters. 
Because the 100-mile radius from Cape Cod includes a large area of 
southern New England and the largest population centers in New England, 
the results will be more broadly applicable to residents of southern 
New England.
    One of the key water quality concerns on Cape Cod, and throughout 
New England, is nonpoint sources of nitrogen, which lead to ecological 
impairments in estuaries, with resultant socio-economic impacts. The 
decisions needed to meet water quality standards are highly complex and 
involve significant cross-disciplinary challenges in identifying, 
implementing, and monitoring social and ecological management needs. We 
will focus on understanding recreational uses as valued economic goods 
in coastal New England (including beachgoing, swimming, fishing, 
shellfishing, and boating).

[[Page 78810]]

    As a part of these efforts, EPA's ORD/AED is seeking approval to 
conduct a revealed preference survey to collect data on: People's 
saltwater recreational activities; how recreational values are related 
to water quality; how perceptions of water quality relate to objective 
measures; the connections between perceptions of water quality, 
recreational choices and values, and sense of place; and demographic 
information. If approved, the survey will be administered using a 
mixed-mode approach that includes a mailed invitation to a web survey 
with an optional paper survey for people who are unable or unwilling to 
answer the web survey. The survey will be sent to a total of 8,400 
residents living in counties where more than 25% of the county's 
geographic boundaries falls within 100 miles of the Cape as measured 
from Bourne, Massachusetts, which is the first town on Cape Cod heading 
east. This area includes coastal counties of New Hampshire, the eastern 
half of Massachusetts, all of Rhode Island, and the eastern part of 
Connecticut. In addition, we will oversample two populations: residents 
of Cape Cod and people who shellfish recreationally. We will send 750 
surveys to each of these groups.
    ORD will use the survey responses to estimate willingness to pay 
for changes related to reductions in nutrient and pathogen loadings to 
coastal New England waters. The analysis relies on state of the art 
theoretical and statistical tools for non-market welfare analysis. A 
non-response bias analysis will also be conducted to inform the 
interpretation and validation of survey responses.
    All responses to the survey will be kept confidential to the extent 
provided by law. To ensure that the final survey sample includes a 
representative and diverse population of individuals, the survey 
questionnaire will elicit basic demographic information, such as age, 
race and ethnicity, number of children under 18, type of employment, 
and income. However, the survey questionnaire will not ask respondents 
for personal identifying information, such as names or phone numbers. 
Instead, each survey response will receive a unique identification 
number. Prior to taking the survey, respondents will be informed that 
their responses will be kept confidential to the extent provided by 
law. The name and address of the respondent will not appear in the 
resulting database, preserving the respondents' identities. The survey 
data will be made public only after it has been thoroughly vetted to 
ensure that all other potentially identifying information has been 
removed. After data entry is complete, the surveys themselves will be 
destroyed and only respondent codes will remain.
    Form Numbers: None.
    Respondents/affected entities: Eligible respondents for the survey 
are individuals 18 years of age or older who reside in counties where 
at least 25% of county's geographic area falls within a 100-mile radius 
of Cape Cod. This includes coastal counties of New Hampshire, the 
eastern half of Massachusetts, all of Rhode Island, and the eastern 
part of Connecticut. The sample will be stratified by geography, with 
Barnstable County, Massachusetts sampled at a rate 3.06 times higher 
than the rest of the population in the study area. Additionally, the 
sample will be a dual-frame sample, where the main frame is the general 
population address-based frame of the U.S. Postal Service Delivery 
Sequence File, and a supplementary frame is the frame of shellfish 
license holder records. Households will be selected randomly from the 
DSF, which covers over 97% of residences in the U.S. EPA will request 
participation from a random stratified sample of 10,270 households in 
two phases. The first phase, a pretest, will be sent to 370 addresses. 
The second phase, encompassing full survey administration, will be 
administered to an additional 9,900 addresses. In each phase, we 
anticipate a response rate of 27 percent, resulting in 90 and 2,365 
completed surveys, respectively, after accounting for expected 
undeliverable surveys.
    Respondent's obligation to respond: voluntary.
    Estimated number of respondents: 2,455 (total).
    Frequency of response: The survey is a one-time data collection 
activity.
    Total estimated burden: 614 hours (total). Burden is defined at 5 
CFR 1320.03(b).
    Total estimated cost: Assuming 15 minutes are needed to complete 
the survey, the total respondent cost comes to $21,386 for the pre-test 
and main survey combined, using an average wage rate for New England of 
$34.83 from the United States Department of Labor. This would be a one-
time expenditure of their time.
    Changes in Estimates: This is the first notice; there is no change 
in estimates at this time.

    Dated: October 31, 2016.
Wayne Munns,
Division Director, Atlantic Ecology Division.
[FR Doc. 2016-27075 Filed 11-8-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
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