[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 144 (Thursday, July 26, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43808-43809]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-18293]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
RIN 0648-XC117
Supplement to the Draft Programmatic Restoration Plan and
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and
the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service,
Washington Department of Ecology and Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife, Suquamish Tribe, Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are
collectively referred to as the Trustee Council for this case. The
Trustee Council is providing notice that the Supplement to the Draft
Programmatic Restoration Plan and Programmatic Environmental Impact
Statement (RP/PEIS) are being released for public comment. The
Restoration Plan identifies a restoration approach to compensate for
injuries to natural resources in the Lower Duwamish River. The Trustees
seek damages from potentially responsible parties (PRPs) to restore,
rehabilitate, replace or acquire the equivalent of natural resources
and services injured by the release of hazardous substances in the
Lower Duwamish River. This notice provides details on the availability
of and opportunity to comment on the Supplement to the Draft
Programmatic Restoration Plan and PEIS. Comments may be submitted in
written form or verbally at a public meeting.
DATES: Written comments must be received by October 10, 2012.
Public meetings to discuss and comment on the Draft RP/PEIS will be
held as follows:
Wednesday, August 22, 2012, 6:30-8:30 p.m., South Seattle
Community College, 6737 Corson Ave. South, Seattle, WA, 98108-3450.
Thursday, August 23, 2012, 10-11:30 a.m., South Seattle
Community College, 6737 Corson Ave. South, Seattle, WA, 98108-3450.
ADDRESSES: Written comments on the Supplement to the Draft RP/PEIS
should be sent to Rebecca Hoff, NOAA DARC NW., 7600 Sand Point Way NE.,
Seattle, WA 98115. Comments may be
[[Page 43809]]
submitted electronically to mailto:[email protected].
The Supplement to the Draft Restoration Plan and PEIS are available
for viewing at the following locations:
Seattle Central Library, General Reference Desk, 1000 Fourth
Ave., Seattle, WA 98104
Delridge Library, General Reference Desk, 5423 Delridge Way
SW., Seattle, WA 98106
South Park Library, General Reference Desk, 8604 Eighth Ave.
S. at South Cloverdale Street, Seattle, WA 98108
A full electronic copy may be downloaded at: http://www.darrp.noaa.gov/northwest/lowerduwamishriver/index.html.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rebecca Hoff at (206) 526-6276 or
email at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), the Oil Pollution Act
(OPA) of 1990, the Clean Water Act (CWA), the National Oil and
Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (National Contingency
Plan [NCP]), and other applicable federal and state laws and
regulations provide a legal framework for addressing injuries to the
nation's natural resources resulting from releases of hazardous
substances and discharges of oil. The National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) of 1960 requires an assessment of any federal action that may
impact the environment, in this case development of a Restoration Plan.
Hazardous substance releases into the Lower Duwamish River (LDR)
have resulted in the contamination of the sediments and injuries to
natural resources. The Elliott Bay Trustee Council (Trustees) is
developing the Lower Duwamish River Natural Resource Damage Assessment
(LDR/NRDA) to determine the extent of injuries to natural resources
resulting from these releases. Natural resources include fish,
shellfish, wildlife, sediments, water quality, and the services they
provide. Trustees are also determining how to restore injured natural
resources and lost resource services. The Restoration Plan, which will
guide decision-making regarding the implementation of LDR/NRDA
restoration activities, is also a Programmatic Environmental Impact
Statement (PEIS). The PEIS analyzes the environmental impacts of the
alternatives that may be employed by the Trustees to restore, replace,
rehabilitate, and/or acquire the equivalent of the injured natural
resources and their services. The Trustees evaluated three
alternatives--the No-Action Alternative, which is required to be
included in the analysis; the Species-Specific Restoration Alternative
and the Integrated Habitat Restoration Alternative. The Trustees'
preferred alternative is Integrated Habitat Restoration, which is a
comprehensive plan based on restoration of key habitats that, together,
will benefit the range of different resources injured by releases of
hazardous substances in the LDR. In addition, the Trustees have
included a detailed description of the methodology considered for use
in a settlement based approach to injury assessment for the Lower
Duwamish River.
A previous draft RP/PEIS was made available for public review on
May 22, 2009 (74 FR 25735, pages 25735-5736, EIS No. 20090171), with
the comment period ending on July 28, 2009. In the current document,
the Trustees added more detail about the injury assessment and
restoration valuation methodology used in the LDR/NRDA, as requested in
some of the comments received on the previous draft, and made some
other more minor changes to address other comments.
The Trustee Council has opened an Administrative Record (Record).
The Record includes documents that the Trustees relied upon during the
development of the Draft Restoration Plan and Draft PEIS. The Record is
on file at the offices of NOAA. The Record is also available at: http://www.darrp.noaa.gov/northwest/lowerduwamishriver/admin.html
Dated: July 20, 2012.
Brian T. Pawlak,
Acting Director, Office of Habitat Conservation, National Marine
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2012-18293 Filed 7-25-12; 8:45 am]
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