[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 114 (Wednesday, June 13, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35471-35473]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-14414]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Railroad Administration
[Docket No. FRA-2012-0016]
National Environmental Policy Act Implementation
AGENCY: Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), United States Department
of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Notice of intent to amend FRA's Procedures for Considering
Environmental Impacts by adding categorical exclusions.
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SUMMARY: FRA is publishing this notice to request comments on FRA's
proposed additions to the list of categorical exclusions (CEs)
contained in FRA's Procedures for Considering Environmental Impacts
(Environmental Procedures). CEs are actions that FRA has determined do
not individually or cumulatively have significant effects on the human
or natural environment and thus, do not require the preparation of an
environmental assessment (EA) or environmental impact statement (EIS)
under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). FRA's Environmental
Procedures currently contain twenty CEs, and FRA is proposing to add
seven additional CEs.
FRA is also making a Categorical Exclusion Substantiation Document
(Substantiation Document) available for public review. That document
supports the proposed CEs and demonstrates that the actions covered by
the proposed CEs are unlikely to have significant impacts on the human
or natural environment. The Substantiation Document is available on
FRA's Web site at http://www.fra.dot.gov/.
DATES: FRA invites the public to comment on the proposed CEs that will
be added to FRA's Environmental Procedures. Comments on this notice are
due on or before July 13, 2012. Comments received after that date will
be considered to the extent possible without incurring additional
expense or delay.
ADDRESSES: Please submit your comments by one of the following means,
identifying your submissions by docket number FRA-2012-0016. All
electronic submissions must be made to the U.S. Government electronic
site at http://www.regulations.gov. Commenters should follow the
instructions below for mailed and hand-delivered comments.
(1) Web site: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions
for submitting comments on the U.S. Government electronic docket site;
(2) Fax: (202) 493-2251;
(3) Mail: U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue
SE., Docket Operations, M-30, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001;
or
(4) Hand Delivery: Room W12-140 on the first floor of the West
Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590, between 9
a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Instructions: All submissions must make reference to the ``Federal
Railroad Administration'' and include docket number FRA-2012-0016. Due
to security procedures in effect since October 2001, mail received
through the U.S. Postal Service may be subject to delays. Parties
making submissions responsive to this notice should consider using an
express mail firm to ensure the prompt filing of any submissions not
filed electronically or by hand. Note that all submissions received,
including any personal information therein, will be posted without
change or alteration to http://www.regulations.gov. For more
information, you may review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the
Federal Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477), or visit
http://www.regulations.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions about this notice,
please contact Christopher Van Nostrand, Attorney Advisor, Office of
the Chief Counsel, Federal Railroad Administration, 1200 New Jersey
Ave. SE., W31-208, Washington, DC 20590, telephone: (202) 493-6058.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Table of Contents
I. Background
II. Process Used To Identify the Categorical Exclusions
III. Proposed Categorical Exclusions
I. Background
FRA's Environmental Procedures were published in the Federal
Register on May 26, 1999 (64 FR 28545) and are available on the
agency's Web site at http://www.fra.dot.gov/Pages/252.shtml. The
Environmental Procedures establish the process for the assessment of
environmental impacts of actions and legislation proposed by FRA and
for the preparation and processing of documents based upon such
assessments. The Environmental Procedures supplement the Council on
Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations (40 CFR parts 1500-1508).
Topics addressed in the Environmental Procedures include, among other
things, the preparation of environmental impact statements (EIS),
environmental assessments (EA), findings of no significant impact, and
section 4(f) analyses. Section 4(c) of the Environmental Procedures
identifies twenty classes of action that FRA has determined to be
categorically excluded from the EIS or EA preparation requirements of
NEPA and the Procedures because actions encompassed within these
classes or categories do not individually or cumulatively have a
significant effect on the human or natural environment. The Procedures
contain a process for identifying ``extraordinary circumstances,'' or
unusual situations where a particular action normally
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included within one of these categories is determined to potentially
have significant environmental impacts and an EA or EIS is prepared.
FRA has determined that additions to the existing list of CEs are
necessary to facilitate FRA's administration of laws relating to
railroad safety, development, rehabilitation, and railroad financial
assistance programs, particularly the High-Speed Intercity Passenger
Rail (HSIPR) grant program and the Railroad Rehabilitation and
Improvement Financing (RRIF) loan/loan guarantee program. After careful
consideration, FRA has determined that the actions included in the
proposed seven new CEs are not of the type or character as to cause
significant effects on the human or natural environment.
Recent statutory initiatives have greatly expanded FRA's ability to
provide financial assistance to intercity passenger railroad projects
and contributed to the need for these proposed CEs. The Passenger Rail
Investment and Improvement Act (PRIIA) of 2008 (Division B of Pub. L.
110-432, 122 Stat. 4907, October 16, 2008) created three new passenger
rail capital assistance programs, the intercity passenger rail corridor
capital assistance program, high-speed rail corridor development, and a
congestion relief program. Additionally, in an effort to stimulate the
economy, create jobs and jumpstart a new era of high-speed rail in this
country, Congress provided $8 billion in grant funding for projects
that support high-speed intercity passenger rail programs in the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) (Pub. L.
111-5, 123 Stat. 115). Congress also appropriated additional funds for
high-speed and intercity rail projects in the Transportation, Housing
and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for 2010
(Div A of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010) (Pub. L. 111-117).
PRIIA, the Recovery Act, and other appropriations greatly expanded
FRA's capacity to fund rail projects in order to achieve a world class
high-speed and passenger rail program in the United States. The purpose
of the HSIPR Program is to address the nation's transportation
challenges by investing in efficient high-speed and intercity passenger
rail networks connecting communities across America.\1\ Many of these
investments involve large scale projects that FRA and project sponsors
(typically State transportation departments) will be preparing EISs and
EAs. However, other investments and components of multi-year programs
are smaller projects that FRA has concluded do not require either an
EIS or an EA and could be categorically excluded if the agency had the
appropriate CEs in place. Preparing EISs or EAs for projects that can
be categorically excluded is not an efficient use of resources of
either FRA or our state partners. Accordingly, the added CEs will
facilitate the responsible and efficient implementation of the HSIPR,
RRIF, and other FRA programs.
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\1\ See Federal Railroad Administration, Vision for High-Speed
Rail in America (April 2009) (describing the general approach to
revitalizing high-speed and intercity passenger rail in the United
States) available at http://www.fra.dot.gov/downloads/Research/FinalFRA_HSR_Strat_Plan.pdf.
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Some of the proposed CEs were chosen from the list of categorical
exclusions currently employed by both the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) (see
23 CFR 771). FRA has identified these specific actions for categorical
exclusion because they have direct applicability for many FRA programs
and a limited potential for environmental impacts. All of the actions
identified in this notice have been subject to prior extensive
environmental review by FRA, FHWA and FTA, are comparable to activities
categorically excluded by other Federal agencies, and were identified
through FRA's benchmarking effort (described in greater detail below).
These environmental reviews, mostly in the form of documented CEs and
EAs, demonstrate that the actions do not individually or cumulatively
have a significant effect on the human or natural environment. As
required under FRA's Environmental Procedures, FRA staff evaluates each
action individually to ensure that the action meets the criteria for
categorical exclusion, and whether extraordinary circumstances exist
that require additional environmental review.
II. Process Used To Identify the Categorical Exclusions
FRA undertook a rigorous process to identify categories of actions
appropriate for new CEs. This evaluation process included an internal
review by FRA's Environment and Systems Planning Division as well as
FRA's Office of Chief Counsel, independent review and comment by
experts enlisted by FRA in coordination with FTA and the John A. Volpe
National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge Massachusetts
(Volpe Center), submission to CEQ, and now publication for public
review and opportunity to comment. FRA undertook this process to ensure
that the types of projects covered by the new CEs presented in Section
III below do not cause significant impacts on the human or natural
environment.
The list of new CEs was generated in close collaboration with FTA.
FRA and FTA each have responsibility for similar types of rail
projects. FTA has historically provided funding for commuter rail
projects, which have many similarities to intercity passenger rail
projects and to freight railroad projects. In addition to using
existing FTA CEs as templates, FRA has coordinated the effort to
develop new CEs with FTA and jointly submitted its CEs to NEPA experts
for independent review.
FTA and FRA, in coordination with the Volpe Center, called on
several expert NEPA professionals to provide feedback on FTA's and
FRA's initial list of actions to be classified as CEs. The experts'
opinions were very valuable in refining the CEs, including identifying
appropriate limitations necessary to avoid covering activities that
have the potential to have significant environmental impacts. The
experts were asked to draw upon their general knowledge of and
experience/involvement with NEPA environmental processes. The
submission to the experts consisted of the proposed CE, a brief
explanation of the CE, and a list of comparative benchmarks or similar
CEs currently employed by other Federal agencies. After a period of
review, the experts submitted comments to FRA that included suggested
changes or modifications or, in most cases, an endorsement of the
proposed CE.
After receiving the experts' comments and suggestions, FRA staff
met to discuss the comments and modified the CEs where appropriate. The
experts suggested ways in which to narrow the categories of actions to
ensure that all covered activities were likely to have less than
significant impacts. In addition, using their own professional
experience, they provided insights into the potential practical
application of many of the proposed CEs.
Consistent with 40 CFR 1507.3 and the Memorandum for the Heads of
Federal Departments and Agencies from Nancy H. Sutley, Chair, Council
on Environmental Quality on Establishing and Applying Categorical
Exclusions Under the National Environmental Policy Act (Nov. 23, 2010),
FRA consulted with CEQ prior to publishing this notice and posting the
Substantiation Document for public review and comment. CEQ suggested
modifications to clarify FRA's intended application and the intended
scope of the proposed CEs, and the CEs proposed
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in this notice and the accompanying Substantiation Documentation
reflect CEQ's comments and suggestions.
FRA is making the Substantiation Document available on FRA's Web
site http://www.fra.dot.gov/rpd/passenger/33.shtml for public review
and comment for a period of 30 days running concurrently with this
notice. After the 30 day comment period, FRA will consider comments
received and make any necessary changes to address substantive issues
raised by the public.
III. Proposed Categorical Exclusions
FRA is proposing to add the following seven CEs to section 4(c) of
FRA's Environmental Procedures as follows:
(21) Alterations to existing facilities, locomotives, stations and
rail cars in order to make them accessible for the elderly and persons
with disabilities, such as modifying doorways, adding or modifying
lifts, constructing access ramps and railings, modifying restrooms, or
constructing accessible platforms.
(22) Bridge rehabilitation, reconstruction or replacement, and the
construction of bridges, culverts, and grade separation projects,
predominantly within existing right-of-way and that do not involve
extensive in-water construction activities, such as projects replacing
bridge components including stringers, caps, piles, or decks, the
construction of roadway overpasses to replace at-grade crossings, or
construction or replacement of short span bridges.
(23) Acquisition (including purchase or lease), rehabilitation, or
maintenance of vehicles and equipment that does not cause a substantial
increase in the use of infrastructure within the existing right-of-way
or other previously disturbed locations, including locomotives,
passenger coaches, freight cars, trainsets, and construction,
maintenance or inspection equipment.
(24) Installation, repair and replacement of equipment and small
structures designed to promote transportation safety, security,
accessibility, communication or operational efficiency that take place
predominantly within the existing right-of-way and do not result in a
major change in traffic density on the existing rail line or facility,
such as the installation, repair or replacement of surface treatments
or pavement markings, small passenger shelters, railroad warning
devices, train control systems, signalization, electric traction
equipment and structures, electronics, photonics, and communications
systems and equipment, equipment mounts, towers and structures,
information processing equipment, or security equipment, including
surveillance and detection cameras.
(25) Environmental restoration, remediation and pollution
prevention activities in or proximate to existing and former railroad
track, infrastructure, stations and facilities, including activities
such as noise mitigation, landscaping, natural resource management
activities, replacement or improvement to storm water systems,
installation of pollution containment systems, slope stabilization, and
contaminated soil removal in conformance with applicable regulations
and permitting requirements.
(26) Assembly and construction of facilities and stations that are
consistent with existing land use and zoning requirements, do not
result in a major change in traffic density on existing rail or highway
facilities and result in approximately less than 10 acres of surface
disturbance, such as storage and maintenance facilities, freight or
passenger loading and unloading facilities or stations, parking
facilities, passenger platforms, canopies, shelters, pedestrian
overpasses or underpasses, paving, or landscaping.
(27) Track and track structure maintenance and improvements when
carried out predominantly within the existing right-of-way and that do
not cause a substantial increase in rail traffic beyond existing or
historic levels, such as stabilizing embankments, installing or
reinstalling track, re-grading, replacing rail, ties, slabs and
ballast, improving or replacing interlockings, or the installation or
maintenance of ancillary equipment.
Issued in Washington, DC, on June 5, 2012.
Joseph C. Szabo,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2012-14414 Filed 6-12-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-06-P