Problem Formulations for the Risk Evaluations To Be Conducted Under the Toxic Substances Control Act, and General Guiding Principles To Apply Systematic Review in TSCA Risk Evaluations; Notice of Availability, 26998-27000 [2018-12520]

Download as PDF 26998 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 112 / Monday, June 11, 2018 / Notices OMB. The actual number of claims submitted under Section 312 is slightly lower than the estimate provided in the previous ICR. The burden hours and costs may be revised based on the actual trade secret claim submissions received for Section 313 reports. The compliance deadline for section 313 report is July 1, 2018. EPA will revise the burden and costs prior to submitting the package to OMB. Dated: May 24, 2018. Becki Clark, Deputy Director, Office of Emergency Management. [FR Doc. 2018–12505 Filed 6–8–18; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6560–50–P ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [FRL–9979–08-Region 6] Underground Injection Control Program; Hazardous Waste Injection Restrictions; Petition for Exemption Reissuance—Class I Hazardous Waste Injection; U. S. Ecology Texas (USET) Robstown, Texas Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Notice of a final decision on a UIC no migration petition reissuance. AGENCY: daltland on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with NOTICES VerDate Sep<11>2014 19:19 Jun 08, 2018 Jkt 244001 Dated: May 18, 2018. James R. Brown, Associate Director, Safe Drinking Water Branch. [FR Doc. 2018–12508 Filed 6–8–18; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6560–50–P ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0210; FRL–9978–40] Notice is hereby given that a reissuance of an exemption to the Land Disposal Restrictions, under the 1984 Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, has been granted to USET for two Class I hazardous waste injection wells located at their Robstown, Texas facility. The company has adequately demonstrated to the satisfaction of the EPA by the petition reissuance application and supporting documentation that, to a reasonable degree of certainty, there will be no migration of hazardous constituents from the injection zone for as long as the waste remains hazardous. This final decision allows the underground injection by USET of the specific restricted hazardous wastes identified in this exemption reissuance, into Class I hazardous waste injection wells WDW–278 and WDW–279 until December 31, 2030, unless the EPA moves to terminate this exemption or other petition condition limitations are reached. Additional conditions included in this final decision may be reviewed by contacting the EPA Region 6 Ground Water/UIC Section. A public notice was issued March 29, 2018, and the public comment period closed on May 15, 2018, and no comments were SUMMARY: received. This decision constitutes final Agency action and there is no Administrative appeal. This decision may be reviewed/appealed in compliance with the Administrative Procedure Act. DATES: This action is effective as of May 18, 2018. ADDRESSES: Copies of the petition reissuance and all pertinent information relating thereto are on file at the following location: Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6, Water Division, Safe Drinking Water Branch (6WQ–S), 1445 Ross Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75202–2733. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Philip Dellinger, Chief Ground Water/ UIC Section, EPA—Region 6, telephone (214) 665–8324. Problem Formulations for the Risk Evaluations To Be Conducted Under the Toxic Substances Control Act, and General Guiding Principles To Apply Systematic Review in TSCA Risk Evaluations; Notice of Availability Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Notice. AGENCY: EPA is publishing and taking comments on the problem formulation documents for the first 10 chemical substances undergoing risk evaluation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Comments received will inform the development of draft risk evaluation documents for these 10 chemical substances. The 10 problem formulation documents announced in this document refine the scope documents published in June 2017 and are an additional interim step, prior to publication of the draft risk evaluations. EPA is also publishing and taking comments on a document entitled: ‘‘Application of Systematic Review in TSCA Risk Evaluations,’’ which sets out general principles to guide EPA’s application of systematic review for TSCA risk evaluations. The Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) generally intends to apply systematic review principles in the development of risk evaluations under TSCA. The SUMMARY: PO 00000 Frm 00054 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 systematic review document includes a structured process of identifying, evaluating and integrating evidence for both the hazard and exposure assessments developed during the TSCA risk evaluation process. This document may be revised periodically. EPA welcomes public input on the document. DATES: Comments on the problem formulations must be received on or before July 26, 2018. EPA specifically requests comments on the Application of Systematic Review in TSCA Risk Evaluations document for 45 days after date of publication in the Federal Register. In addition, because this document is a living document which may be revised periodically. EPA welcomes public input on this document at any time. ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by the appropriate docket identification (ID) numbers as provided in Unit IV., by one of the following methods: • Federal eRulemaking Portal: https:// www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. When submitting comments, please be as specific as possible, and please include any supporting data or other information. • Mail: Document Control Office (7407M), Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460–0001. • Hand Delivery: To make special arrangements for hand delivery or delivery of boxed information, please follow the instructions at https:// www.epa.gov/dockets/contacts.html. Additional instructions on commenting or visiting the docket, along with more information about dockets in general is available at https:// www.epa.gov/dockets. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For technical information on the Problem Formulation documents contact: Christina Motilall, Risk Assessment Division, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460–0001; telephone number: (202) 564–1287; email address: motilall.christina@ epa.gov. For technical information on Application of Systematic Review in TSCA Risk Evaluations contact: Iris Camacho, Risk Assessment Division, Office of Pollution Prevention and E:\FR\FM\11JNN1.SGM 11JNN1 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 112 / Monday, June 11, 2018 / Notices Toxics, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460–0001; telephone number: (202) 564–1229; email address: TSCA-systematicreview@epa.gov. For general information contact: The TSCA-Hotline, ABVI-Goodwill, 422 South Clinton Ave., Rochester, NY 14620; telephone number: (202) 554– 1404; email address: TSCA-Hotline@ epa.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Does this action apply to me? You may be potentially affected by this action if you manufacture (defined under TSCA to include import), process, distribute in commerce, use or dispose of any of the 10 chemical substances identified in this document for risk evaluation, or any future existing chemical substances undergoing risk evaluation under TSCA. This action may be of particular interest to entities that are regulated under TSCA (e.g., entities identified under North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes 325 and 324110, among others). Since other entities may also be interested, the Agency has not attempted to describe all the specific entities and corresponding NAICS codes for entities that may be interested in or affected by this action. II. What is the Agency’s authority for this action? As amended in June 2016, TSCA requires that EPA prioritize and evaluate existing chemical substances and manage identified risks (15 U.S.C. 2605). TSCA section 6(b) specifies the requirements for risk evaluation. III. Background A. The First 10 Chemical Substances for Risk Evaluations Under TSCA On December 19, 2016 (81 FR 91927) (FRL–9956–47), EPA released its designation of the first 10 chemical substances for risk evaluations under TSCA. EPA’s designation of the first 10 chemical substances constituted the initiation of the risk evaluation process for each of these chemical substances, pursuant to the requirements of TSCA section 6(b)(4). On June 22, 2017, EPA released scope documents for the first 10 chemical substances (see 82 FR 31592, July 7, 2017) (FRL–9963–57). Each scope document includes the hazards, exposures, conditions of use, and the potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations that EPA expects to consider in the risk evaluation. EPA has prepared a Response to Comments document addressing overarching comments received on the scope documents, which is available in the docket (see docket ID number EPA– HQ–OPPT–2017–0736). Chemical substance-specific comments on the scope documents are addressed in the respective problem formulation documents. B. Systematic Review In the development of TSCA risk evaluations, the Agency generally intends to apply systematic review principles. EPA described systematic review in the preamble of the final rule Procedures for Chemical Risk Evaluation Under the Amended Toxic Substances Control Act (82 FR 33726, July 20, 2017), and in the preamble of the proposed rule (82 FR 7562, January 19, 2017) (FRL–9957–75). EPA intends to apply systematic review to prespecify the criteria, methods/approaches for data collection, data evaluation and data integration to meet the TSCA science standards. TSCA requires EPA to make scientific decisions in a manner consistent with the best available science and base decisions on the weight of the scientific evidence. Supplemental documents to the scope documents of the first 10 chemical Chemical No. 26999 substances, published in June 2017 (e.g., Strategy for Conducting Literature Searches for Asbestos: Supplemental Document to the TSCA Scope Document, CASRN: 1332–21–4) already document the initial methods for identifying, compiling and screening publicly available information. These data collections and screening activities are described in the Strategy for Conducting Literature Searches document and the Bibliography document supporting each of the TSCA scope documents for the first ten chemical substances. IV. What action is the Agency taking? A. Problem Formulation Documents To refine the scope documents, EPA is publishing and taking public comment on problem formulation documents for the first 10 chemical substances. As indicated in the scope documents, time constraints resulted in scope documents that were not as refined or specific as future scope documents are anticipated to be. The 10 problem formulation documents announced in this document are an additional interim step, prior to publication of the draft risk evaluations, that refine the scope documents. These refinements may apply to the conditions of use, hazards, exposures, and the potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations EPA expects to consider in the risk evaluation. EPA has incorporated scope document comments specific to each chemical substance into the respective problem formulation document. While EPA does not intend to revise these problem formulation documents, comments and information provided will inform the development of the draft risk evaluation documents. The following table identifies the docket ID numbers and EPA contact for each of the 10 problem formulations that EPA is taking comments on. Docket ID No. Agency contact EPA–HQ–OPPT–2016–0736 1-Bromopropane .................................................. 1,4-Dioxane .......................................................... Carbon Tetrachloride ........................................... daltland on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with NOTICES Asbestos ............................................................... EPA–HQ–OPPT–2016–0741 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2016–0723 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2016–0733 Cyclic Aliphatic Bromide Cluster (HBCD) ............ Methylene Chloride .............................................. N-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP) .................................. Pigment Violet 29 (Anthra[2,1,9-def:6,5,10-d′e’f′] diisoquinoline-1,3,8,10(2H,9H)-tetrone). Tetrachloroethylene (also known as perchloroethylene). Trichloroethylene (TCE) ....................................... EPA–HQ–OPPT–2016–0735 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2016–0742 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2016–0743 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2016–0725 Robert Courtnage, courtnage.robert@epa.gov, 202–566– 1081. Ana Corado, corado.ana@epa.gov, 202–564–0140. Cindy Wheeler, wheeler.cindy@epa.gov, 202–566–0484. Stephanie Jarmul, jarmul.stephanie@epa.gov, 202–564– 6130. Sue Slotnick, slotnick.sue@epa.gov, 202–566–1973. Ana Corado, corado.ana@epa.gov, 202–564–0140. Ana Corado, corado.ana@epa.gov, 202–564–0140. Hannah Braun, braun.hannah@epa.gov, 202–564–5614. EPA–HQ–OPPT–2016–0732 Tyler Lloyd, lloyd.tyler@epa.gov, 202–564–4016. EPA–HQ–OPPT–2016–0737 Toni Krasnic, krasnic.toni@epa.gov, 202–564–0984. VerDate Sep<11>2014 19:19 Jun 08, 2018 Jkt 244001 PO 00000 Frm 00055 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 E:\FR\FM\11JNN1.SGM 11JNN1 27000 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 112 / Monday, June 11, 2018 / Notices EPA invites the public to provide additional comment and information that would be useful in conducting the risk evaluation for each of the 10 chemical substances. B. The Application of Systematic Review in TSCA Risk Evaluations daltland on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with NOTICES Authority: 15 U.S.C. 2601 et seq. Dated: May 31, 2018. Charlotte Bertrand, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. BILLING CODE 6560–50–P VerDate Sep<11>2014 19:19 Jun 08, 2018 Jkt 244001 Federal Advisory Committee Act; Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Notice of public meeting. AGENCY: The Application of Systematic Review in TSCA Risk Evaluations document is a supplemental publication which sets out general principles to guide EPA’s application of systematic review in the risk evaluation process for the first 10 chemical substances that EPA initiated on December 19, 2016, as well as future assessments. It also provides the intended strategy for assessing the quality of information that the Agency plans to use for the TSCA risk evaluations. The Agency intends to implement a structured process of identifying, evaluating and integrating evidence for both the hazard and exposure assessments developed during the TSCA risk evaluation process. As needed, EPA will develop new approaches and methods to address specific assessment needs for the relatively large and diverse chemical space under TSCA. Hence, the Agency will document the progress of implementing systematic review in the draft risk evaluations and through revisions of this document and publication of supplemental documents. The systematic review document provides the general expectations for evidence integration. Further additional information will be published with the publication of the draft TSCA risk evaluations. Ultimately, the goal is to establish a pragmatic systematic review process that generates high quality, fit-forpurpose risk evaluations that rely on the best available science and the weight of the scientific evidence within the context of TSCA. This document is a living document which may be revised periodically. EPA welcomes public input on this document at any time. [FR Doc. 2018–12520 Filed 6–8–18; 8:45 am] FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, this notice advises interested persons that the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC or Commission) Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) VI will hold its fifth meeting. DATES: June 29, 2018. ADDRESSES: Federal Communications Commission, Room TW–C305 (Commission Meeting Room), 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20554. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeffery Goldthorp, Designated Federal Officer, (202) 418–1096 (voice) or jeffery.goldthorp@fcc.gov (email); or Suzon Cameron, Deputy Designated Federal Officer, (202) 418–1916 (voice) or suzon.cameron@fcc.gov (email). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The meeting will be held on June 29, 2018, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room of the Federal Communications Commission, Room TW–C305, 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20554. The CSRIC is a Federal Advisory Committee that will provide recommendations to the FCC regarding best practices and actions the FCC can take to help ensure the security, reliability, and interoperability of communications systems. On March 19, 2017, the FCC, pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, renewed the charter for the CSRIC for a period of two years through March 18, 2019. The meeting on June 29, 2018, will be the fifth meeting of the CSRIC under the current charter. The FCC will attempt to accommodate as many attendees as possible; however, admittance will be limited to seating availability. The Commission will provide audio and/or video coverage of the meeting over the internet from the FCC’s web page at https://www.fcc.gov/live. The public may submit written comments before the meeting to Jeffery Goldthorp, CSRIC Designated Federal Officer, by email to jeffery.goldthorp@fcc.gov or U.S. Postal Service Mail to Jeffery Goldthorp, Associate Bureau Chief, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, 445 12th Street SW, Room 7–A325, Washington, DC 20554. SUMMARY: PO 00000 Frm 00056 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 Open captioning will be provided for this event. Other reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities are available upon request. Requests for such accommodations should be submitted via email to fcc504@fcc.gov or by calling the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau at (202) 418–0530 (voice), (202) 418–0432 (tty). Such requests should include a detailed description of the accommodation needed. In addition, please include a way the FCC can contact you if it needs more information. Please allow at least five days’ advance notice; last-minute requests will be accepted, but may be impossible to fill. Federal Communications Commission. Marlene Dortch, Secretary. [FR Doc. 2018–12490 Filed 6–8–18; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6712–01–P FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION [OMB 3060–1113] Information Collection Being Submitted for Review and Approval to the Office of Management and Budget Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Notice and request for comments. AGENCY: As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burdens, and as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or the Commission) invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the following information collection. Comments are requested concerning: whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Commission, including whether the information shall have practical utility; the accuracy of the Commission’s burden estimate; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on the respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology; and ways to further reduce the information collection burden on small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees. The Commission may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid SUMMARY: E:\FR\FM\11JNN1.SGM 11JNN1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 112 (Monday, June 11, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 26998-27000]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-12520]


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

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0210; FRL-9978-40]


Problem Formulations for the Risk Evaluations To Be Conducted 
Under the Toxic Substances Control Act, and General Guiding Principles 
To Apply Systematic Review in TSCA Risk Evaluations; Notice of 
Availability

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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

SUMMARY: EPA is publishing and taking comments on the problem 
formulation documents for the first 10 chemical substances undergoing 
risk evaluation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Comments 
received will inform the development of draft risk evaluation documents 
for these 10 chemical substances. The 10 problem formulation documents 
announced in this document refine the scope documents published in June 
2017 and are an additional interim step, prior to publication of the 
draft risk evaluations. EPA is also publishing and taking comments on a 
document entitled: ``Application of Systematic Review in TSCA Risk 
Evaluations,'' which sets out general principles to guide EPA's 
application of systematic review for TSCA risk evaluations. The Office 
of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) generally intends to apply 
systematic review principles in the development of risk evaluations 
under TSCA. The systematic review document includes a structured 
process of identifying, evaluating and integrating evidence for both 
the hazard and exposure assessments developed during the TSCA risk 
evaluation process. This document may be revised periodically. EPA 
welcomes public input on the document.

DATES: Comments on the problem formulations must be received on or 
before July 26, 2018.
    EPA specifically requests comments on the Application of Systematic 
Review in TSCA Risk Evaluations document for 45 days after date of 
publication in the Federal Register. In addition, because this document 
is a living document which may be revised periodically. EPA welcomes 
public input on this document at any time.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by the appropriate docket 
identification (ID) numbers as provided in Unit IV., by one of the 
following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to 
be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose 
disclosure is restricted by statute. When submitting comments, please 
be as specific as possible, and please include any supporting data or 
other information.
     Mail: Document Control Office (7407M), Office of 
Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), Environmental Protection 
Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460-0001.
     Hand Delivery: To make special arrangements for 
hand delivery or delivery of boxed information, please follow the 
instructions at https://www.epa.gov/dockets/contacts.html.
    Additional instructions on commenting or visiting the docket, along 
with more information about dockets in general is available at https://www.epa.gov/dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
    For technical information on the Problem Formulation documents 
contact: Christina Motilall, Risk Assessment Division, Office of 
Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460-0001; telephone number: 
(202) 564-1287; email address: [email protected].
    For technical information on Application of Systematic Review in 
TSCA Risk Evaluations contact: Iris Camacho, Risk Assessment Division, 
Office of Pollution Prevention and

[[Page 26999]]

Toxics, Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 
Washington, DC 20460-0001; telephone number: (202) 564-1229; email 
address: [email protected].
    For general information contact: The TSCA-Hotline, ABVI-Goodwill, 
422 South Clinton Ave., Rochester, NY 14620; telephone number: (202) 
554-1404; email address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Does this action apply to me?

    You may be potentially affected by this action if you manufacture 
(defined under TSCA to include import), process, distribute in 
commerce, use or dispose of any of the 10 chemical substances 
identified in this document for risk evaluation, or any future existing 
chemical substances undergoing risk evaluation under TSCA. This action 
may be of particular interest to entities that are regulated under TSCA 
(e.g., entities identified under North American Industrial 
Classification System (NAICS) codes 325 and 324110, among others). 
Since other entities may also be interested, the Agency has not 
attempted to describe all the specific entities and corresponding NAICS 
codes for entities that may be interested in or affected by this 
action.

II. What is the Agency's authority for this action?

    As amended in June 2016, TSCA requires that EPA prioritize and 
evaluate existing chemical substances and manage identified risks (15 
U.S.C. 2605). TSCA section 6(b) specifies the requirements for risk 
evaluation.

III. Background

A. The First 10 Chemical Substances for Risk Evaluations Under TSCA

    On December 19, 2016 (81 FR 91927) (FRL-9956-47), EPA released its 
designation of the first 10 chemical substances for risk evaluations 
under TSCA. EPA's designation of the first 10 chemical substances 
constituted the initiation of the risk evaluation process for each of 
these chemical substances, pursuant to the requirements of TSCA section 
6(b)(4).
    On June 22, 2017, EPA released scope documents for the first 10 
chemical substances (see 82 FR 31592, July 7, 2017) (FRL-9963-57). Each 
scope document includes the hazards, exposures, conditions of use, and 
the potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations that EPA expects 
to consider in the risk evaluation.
    EPA has prepared a Response to Comments document addressing 
overarching comments received on the scope documents, which is 
available in the docket (see docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2017-0736). 
Chemical substance-specific comments on the scope documents are 
addressed in the respective problem formulation documents.

B. Systematic Review

    In the development of TSCA risk evaluations, the Agency generally 
intends to apply systematic review principles. EPA described systematic 
review in the preamble of the final rule Procedures for Chemical Risk 
Evaluation Under the Amended Toxic Substances Control Act (82 FR 33726, 
July 20, 2017), and in the preamble of the proposed rule (82 FR 7562, 
January 19, 2017) (FRL-9957-75). EPA intends to apply systematic review 
to pre-specify the criteria, methods/approaches for data collection, 
data evaluation and data integration to meet the TSCA science 
standards. TSCA requires EPA to make scientific decisions in a manner 
consistent with the best available science and base decisions on the 
weight of the scientific evidence.
    Supplemental documents to the scope documents of the first 10 
chemical substances, published in June 2017 (e.g., Strategy for 
Conducting Literature Searches for Asbestos: Supplemental Document to 
the TSCA Scope Document, CASRN: 1332-21-4) already document the initial 
methods for identifying, compiling and screening publicly available 
information. These data collections and screening activities are 
described in the Strategy for Conducting Literature Searches document 
and the Bibliography document supporting each of the TSCA scope 
documents for the first ten chemical substances.

IV. What action is the Agency taking?

A. Problem Formulation Documents

    To refine the scope documents, EPA is publishing and taking public 
comment on problem formulation documents for the first 10 chemical 
substances. As indicated in the scope documents, time constraints 
resulted in scope documents that were not as refined or specific as 
future scope documents are anticipated to be. The 10 problem 
formulation documents announced in this document are an additional 
interim step, prior to publication of the draft risk evaluations, that 
refine the scope documents. These refinements may apply to the 
conditions of use, hazards, exposures, and the potentially exposed or 
susceptible subpopulations EPA expects to consider in the risk 
evaluation. EPA has incorporated scope document comments specific to 
each chemical substance into the respective problem formulation 
document. While EPA does not intend to revise these problem formulation 
documents, comments and information provided will inform the 
development of the draft risk evaluation documents.
    The following table identifies the docket ID numbers and EPA 
contact for each of the 10 problem formulations that EPA is taking 
comments on.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
            Chemical No.                              Docket ID No.                        Agency contact
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Asbestos............................  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0736                         Robert Courtnage,
                                                                                     [email protected],
                                                                                     202-566-1081.
1-Bromopropane......................  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0741                         Ana Corado,
                                                                                     [email protected], 202-564-
                                                                                     0140.
1,4-Dioxane.........................  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0723                         Cindy Wheeler,
                                                                                     [email protected], 202-
                                                                                     566-0484.
Carbon Tetrachloride................  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0733                         Stephanie Jarmul,
                                                                                     [email protected],
                                                                                     202-564-6130.
Cyclic Aliphatic Bromide Cluster      EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0735                         Sue Slotnick,
 (HBCD).                                                                             [email protected], 202-
                                                                                     566-1973.
Methylene Chloride..................  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0742                         Ana Corado,
                                                                                     [email protected], 202-564-
                                                                                     0140.
N-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP)...........  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0743                         Ana Corado,
                                                                                     [email protected], 202-564-
                                                                                     0140.
Pigment Violet 29 (Anthra[2,1,9-      EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0725                         Hannah Braun,
 def:6,5,10-d'e'f'] diisoquinoline-                                                  [email protected], 202-
 1,3,8,10(2H,9H)-tetrone).                                                           564-5614.
Tetrachloroethylene (also known as    EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0732                         Tyler Lloyd,
 perchloroethylene).                                                                 [email protected], 202-
                                                                                     564-4016.
Trichloroethylene (TCE).............  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0737                         Toni Krasnic,
                                                                                     [email protected], 202-
                                                                                     564-0984.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


[[Page 27000]]

    EPA invites the public to provide additional comment and 
information that would be useful in conducting the risk evaluation for 
each of the 10 chemical substances.

B. The Application of Systematic Review in TSCA Risk Evaluations

    The Application of Systematic Review in TSCA Risk Evaluations 
document is a supplemental publication which sets out general 
principles to guide EPA's application of systematic review in the risk 
evaluation process for the first 10 chemical substances that EPA 
initiated on December 19, 2016, as well as future assessments. It also 
provides the intended strategy for assessing the quality of information 
that the Agency plans to use for the TSCA risk evaluations.
    The Agency intends to implement a structured process of 
identifying, evaluating and integrating evidence for both the hazard 
and exposure assessments developed during the TSCA risk evaluation 
process. As needed, EPA will develop new approaches and methods to 
address specific assessment needs for the relatively large and diverse 
chemical space under TSCA. Hence, the Agency will document the progress 
of implementing systematic review in the draft risk evaluations and 
through revisions of this document and publication of supplemental 
documents. The systematic review document provides the general 
expectations for evidence integration. Further additional information 
will be published with the publication of the draft TSCA risk 
evaluations.
    Ultimately, the goal is to establish a pragmatic systematic review 
process that generates high quality, fit-for-purpose risk evaluations 
that rely on the best available science and the weight of the 
scientific evidence within the context of TSCA.
    This document is a living document which may be revised 
periodically. EPA welcomes public input on this document at any time.

    Authority: 15 U.S.C. 2601 et seq.

    Dated: May 31, 2018.
Charlotte Bertrand,
Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical 
Safety and Pollution Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2018-12520 Filed 6-8-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
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