^£0S% ** \ UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY % \A|AZ ? WASHINGTON D.C. 20460 OFFICE OF THE ADMINISTRATOR SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD January 26, 2015 EPA-SAB-15-003 The Honorable Gina McCarthy Administrator U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20460 Subject: Science Advisory Board (SAB) Consideration of EPA Planned Actions in the Fall 2013 Unified (Regulatory) Agenda and their Supporting Science Dear Administrator McCarthy: As part of its statutory duties, the Science Advisory Board (SAB) recently concluded a series of discussions about possible review of the science supporting major EPA planned actions. The EPA Office of Policy informed the SAB that the Fall 2013 Unified (Regulatory) Agenda and Regulatory Plan had been published in the Federal Register on November 26, 2013. Since that time, the SAB held public teleconferences on June 11, 2014, and January 23, 2015, to discuss whether to review the science supporting any of the planned regulatory actions in that agenda in order to provide advice and comment on the adequacy of the science, as authorized by section (c) of the Environmental Research, Development and Demonstration Authorization Act. The SAB focused its attention on five major actions identified by the EPA Office of Policy as being planned but not yet proposed as of the date the Semiannual Regulatory Agenda was published. The SAB has decided that it will not undertake review of the science supporting any actions in the semi-annual regulatory agenda at this time. It asks, however, that the agency inform the SAB about the status of one action, Development of Best Management Practices for Recreational Boats under § 312(o) of the Clean Water Act (2040-AF03), when future semi-annual regulatory agendas are published, because of the critical significance of the threat of invasive species to terrestrial, coastal, and freshwater ecosystems. The chartered SAB also asks the EPA to provide it, in 2015, with briefings on: (1) the science underlying agency approaches to address transport of invasive species, including both primary and secondary transport modes; and (2) the legal authorities existing to address transport of invasive species, a major, high priority global environmental threat. ------- On behalf of the SAB, I thank you for the opportunity to support EPA through consideration of the science supporting actions in the agency's regulatory agenda. Sincerely, /signed/ Dr. David T. Allen, Chair Science Advisory Board Enclosure (1) Roster of SAB Members ------- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board CHAIR Dr. David T. Allen, Gertz Regents Professor of Chemical Engineering and the Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Resources, The University of Texas, Austin, TX MEMBERS Dr. George Alexeeff, Director, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, California Environmental Protection Agency, Oakland, CA Dr. Joseph Arvai, Professor and Svare Chair in Applied Decision Research, Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada Dr. Sylvie M. Brouder, Professor and Wickersham Chair of Excellence in Agricultural Research, Department of Agronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN Dr. Thomas Burbacher, Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA Dr. Ingrid Burke, Director and Wyoming Excellence Chair, Haub School and Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY Dr. George Daston, Victor Mills Society Research Fellow, Global Product Stewardship, The Procter & Gamble Company, Mason, OH Dr. Costel Denson, Managing Member, Costech Technologies, LLC, Hockessin, DE Dr. Michael Dourson, President, Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment, Cincinnati, OH Dr. Joel Ducoste, Professor, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC Dr. David A. Dzombak, Hamerschlag University Professor and Department Head, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA Dr. Elaine M. Faustman, Professor and Director, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA Dr. R. William Field, Professor, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, and Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 1 ------- Dr. H. Christopher Frey, Distinguished University Professor, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC Dr. Steven Hamburg, Chief Scientist, Environmental Defense Fund, Boston, MA Dr. Cynthia M. Harris, Director and Professor, Institute of Public Health, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL Dr. Robert J. Johnston, Director of the George Perkins Marsh Institute and Professor, Economics, Clark University, Worcester, MA Dr. Kimberly L. Jones, Professor and Chair, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Howard University, Washington, DC Dr. Catherine Karr, Associate Professor - Pediatrics and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Director - NW Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, University of Washington, Seattle, WA Dr. Madhu Khanna, ACES Distinguished Professor in Environmental Economics, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL Dr. Nancy K. Kim, Independent Consultant, Independent Consultant, Albany, NY Dr. Francine Laden, Mark and Catherine Winkler Associate Professor of Environmental Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, and Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA Dr. Lois Lehman-McKeeman, Distinguished Research Fellow, Discovery Toxicology, Bristol- Myers Squibb, Princeton, NJ Dr. Cecil Lue-Hing, President, Cecil Lue-Hing & Assoc. Inc., Burr Ridge, IL Dr. Elizabeth Matsui, Associate Professor, Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD Dr. Denise Mauzerall, Professor, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ Dr. Kristina D. Mena, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, El Paso, TX Dr. Surabi Menon, Director of Research, ClimateWorks Foundation, San Francisco, CA 11 ------- Dr. James R. Mihelcic, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL Dr. H. Keith Moo-Young, Chancellor, Office of Chancellor, Washington State University, Tri- Cities, Richland, WA Dr. Eileen Murphy, Director of Research Development, Office of Research and Economic Development, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ Dr. James Opaluch, Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, College of the Environment and Life Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI Dr. Martin Philbert, Dean and Professor, Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI Mr. Richard L. Poirot, Air Quality Planning Chief, Air Quality and Climate Division, Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, Montpelier, VT Dr. Stephen Polasky, Fesler-Lampert Professor of Ecological/Environmental Economics, Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN Dr. David B. Richardson, Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC Dr. Amanda D. Rodewald, Director of Conservation Science, Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Associate Professor, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY Dr. William Schlesinger, President Emeritus, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY Dr. Gina Solomon, Deputy Secretary for Science and Health, Office of the Secretary, California Environmental Protection Agency, Sacramento, CA Dr. Daniel O. Stram, Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Division of Biostatistics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Dr. Peter S. Thorne, Professor and Head, Department of Occupational & Environmental Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Dr. Paige Tolbert, Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA Dr. Jeanne VanBriesen, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 111 ------- Dr. John Vena, Professor and Founding Chair, Department of Public Health Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC Dr. Elke Weber, Jerome A. Chazen Professor of International Business, Columbia Business School, New York, NY Dr. Charles Werth, Professor and Bettie Margaret Smith Chair in Environmental Health Engineering, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX Dr. Peter J. Wilcoxen, Associate Professor, Economics and Public Administration, The Maxwell School, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY Dr. Dawn J. Wright, Chief Scientist, Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), Redlands, CA SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD STAFF Dr. Angela Nugent, Designated Federal Officer, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Science Advisory Board, Washington, DC iv ------- |