[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 145 (Friday, July 27, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44259-44262]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-18337]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
[ADM-9-03 OT:RR:RD:BS; H218497 MAW]
Notice of Availability of a Final Programmatic Environmental
Impact Statement and Draft Record of Decision for Northern Border
Activities
AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, DHS.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announces that the
Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) and Draft
Record of Decision (ROD) for Northern Border Activities are now
available. The Final PEIS analyzes the potential environmental and
socioeconomic effects associated with its ongoing and potential future
activities along the northern border between the United States and
Canada. The overall area of study analyzed in the document extends
approximately 4,000 miles from Maine to Washington and 100 miles south
of the U.S.-Canada Border. A Draft ROD announcing CBP's decision
concerning which alternative to select is available for review for 30
days.
DATES: The Draft ROD will be available until August 27, 2012. CBP will
issue a Final ROD no sooner than August 27, 2012.
ADDRESSES: The public and other interested parties may obtain copies of
the Final PEIS and Draft ROD by accessing the following Internet
address: http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/about/sr/ and www.dhs.gov/nepa, by
contacting CBP by telephone (202-325-4191), by email
cbpenvironmentalprogram@cbp.dhs.gov, or by writing to: Jennifer DeHart
Hass, Environmental and Energy Division, 1331 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.,
Suite 1220N, Washington, DC 20229.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jennifer DeHart Hass, CBP, Office of
Administration, telephone 202-325-4191. You may also visit the
project's Web site at: http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/about/sr/.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is charged with the
mission of enforcing customs, immigration, agriculture, and numerous
other laws and regulations at the Nation's borders and facilitating
legitimate trade and travel through legal ports of entry. As the
guardian of the United States' borders, CBP protects the roughly 4,000
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miles of northern border between United States and Canada, from Maine
to Washington. The terrain ranges from densely forested lands on the
west and east coasts to open plains in the middle of the country.
CBP has completed a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact
Statement (PEIS) for its ongoing and potential future activities along
the northern border. The Final PEIS is now available. (For instructions
on obtaining a copy of the PEIS, please see the ADDRESSES section of
this document.) Because this effort is programmatic in nature, the PEIS
does not define effects for a specific or planned action. Instead, it
analyzes the overall environmental and socioeconomic effects of
activities supporting the homeland security mission of CBP and looks at
various alternatives that would enhance CBP's border security
activities.
Public Scoping Process
On July 6, 2010, CBP published in the Federal Register (75 FR
38822) a notice announcing that CBP intended to prepare four PEISs to
analyze the environmental effects of current and potential future CBP
border security activities along the northern border. Each PEIS was to
cover one region of the northern border: The New England region, the
Great Lakes region, the region east of the Rocky Mountains, and the
region west of the Rocky Mountains. The notice also announced and
initiated the public scoping process to gather information from the
public in preparation for drafting the PEISs. The notice provided that
the scoping period would conclude on August 5, 2010, after CBP held 11
scoping meetings at various locations along the northern border. CBP
continued to take comments past the initial scoping period.
Draft PEIS
Subsequently, and in part due to comments received during public
scoping, CBP decided to refocus its approach and develop one PEIS
covering the entire northern border, rather than four separate,
regional PEISs. CBP concluded that, relative to four separate PEISs,
one PEIS would be a more useful planning tool. CBP also determined that
this new approach would ensure that CBP could effectively analyze and
convey impacts that occur across regions of the northern border.
Therefore, CBP published a notice in the Federal Register (75 FR 68810)
announcing this intention on November 9, 2010. On September 16, 2011,
CBP published a notice of availability of the Draft PEIS in the Federal
Register (76 FR 57751) with request for comments and announcement of
public meeting dates.
In the Draft PEIS, CBP analyzed the environmental and socioeconomic
effects of current and potential future CBP border security activities
along the northern border between the United States and Canada,
including an area extending approximately 100 miles south of the
northern border. For the purposes of the PEIS, CBP defined the northern
border as the area between the United States and Canada extending from
the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, encompassing all the states
between Maine and Washington, inclusively. (The Alaska-Canada border is
not included in this effort.) In the PEIS, CBP evaluated the
environmental and socioeconomic impacts of routine aspects of its
operations along the northern border and considered potential
enhancements to its infrastructure, technologies, and application of
manpower to continue to deter existing and evolving threats to the
Nation's physical and economic security. The PEIS analyzed four
northern border regions: The New England region, the Great Lakes
region, the region east of the Rocky Mountains, and the region west of
the Rocky Mountains. The PEIS did not contain specific proposals for
projects, nor did it convey a specific intent to expand CBP's
activities within the period covered by the PEIS.
Publication of the Draft PEIS initiated a public review and comment
period. During that review and comment period, CBP held 12 public
meetings in various locations within the area of study and one
additional meeting in the Washington, DC metropolitan area to reach any
national interest groups seeking information on CBP's evaluation. CBP's
public involvement strategy sought to cover a broad range of the
northern border, including remote areas, mid-sized towns, and some
population centers. Because CBP will take the requisite steps to comply
with NEPA for specific projects that are within the scope of the
alternatives or activities covered by this PEIS, there will be
additional opportunities for public involvement regarding potentially
significant impacts to the environment.
CBP received 123 pieces of correspondence providing comments, which
contained over 700 comments on the Draft PEIS. Some recurring themes
received in the comments include:
Concerns with the sufficiency of the range of alternatives
proposed and their comparative analysis;
Concern about potential impacts to transboundary areas and
transboundary movement of species;
Concerns regarding belief that CBP would use this PEIS to
justify building a fence along the border;
Concerns with potential impacts to specific cultural
resources identified by commenters; and
Issues with the extent of public outreach conducted by CBP
for the PEIS.
Final PEIS
After further analysis and consideration of the comments received
on the Draft PEIS, CBP has now completed a Final PEIS. CBP has prepared
the Final PEIS as a planning tool in accordance with DHS Directive 023-
01, Environmental Planning. The Final PEIS is intended to provide
decision-makers within CBP with information on the potential for
direct, indirect, and cumulative environmental impacts that could
result from any future proposals to secure and otherwise facilitate
legal trade and travel through the northern border. CBP plans to use
the information derived from the analysis in the Final PEIS in
management, planning, and decision-making for its mission and its
environmental stewardship responsibilities. It will also be used to
establish a foundation for future impact analyses.
More specifically, CBP plans to use the Final PEIS analysis over
the next five to seven years as CBP works to improve security along the
northern border. CBP will use this PEIS as a foundation for future
environmental analyses of specific programs or locations as CBP's plans
for particular northern border security activities develop. The Final
PEIS provides background information for the incorporation of more
project-specific plans; CBP would not implement any alternative or any
element of any alternative in the Final PEIS based solely on the
analysis presented in the Final PEIS. To implement a specific plan, CBP
would take the requisite steps to comply with the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA).
Incorporation of Comments
The Final PEIS reflects the consideration and incorporation of
public comments received on the Draft PEIS. In its responses, CBP
sought to improve the explanation of the comparative merits of each
alternative and make clear that the alternatives represent a reasonable
set of options given that CBP is not proposing specific
[[Page 44261]]
location or intensity based-strategies for augmenting activities at
this time. In addition, CBP clarified that the PEIS did not set forth a
specific proposal for expansive use of barriers between the ports of
entry and that any future proposal would be subject to a site-specific
impacts analysis, including consultation with affected landowners, land
managers, and agencies with jurisdiction over impacted resources.
Finally, CBP clarified that several comments regarding impacts to
specific resources of cultural or socioeconomic importance to
individual commenters were not addressed in the PEIS because the
programmatic nature of the document would not permit addressing
detailed impacts to every location-specific resource.
Substantive comments within the scope of considerations covered in
the Draft PEIS have been incorporated in the Final PEIS. CBP's
responses to all comments received are summarized in Appendix A of the
Final PEIS. CBP also made additional technical clarifications from the
draft identified through the course of incorporating comments.
Alternatives Considered
The Final PEIS considers the environmental impacts of several
alternative approaches CBP may use to protect the northern border
against evolving threats. These alternatives would all support
continued deployment of existing CBP personnel in the most effective
manner while maintaining officer safety and continued use of
partnerships with other Federal, state, and local law enforcement
agencies in the United States and Canada. CBP needs to maintain
effective control of the northern border via all air, land, and
maritime pathways for cross-border movement.
The No Action Alternative (or ``status quo'') would be to continue
with the same facilities, technology, infrastructure, and approximate
level of personnel currently in use, deployed, or currently planned by
CBP. Normal maintenance of existing facilities is included in this
alternative, along with previously planned or started projects. This
alternative would not meet the purpose and need of the proposed action
to allow CBP the flexibility to improve its capability to interdict
cross-border violators and to identify and resolve threats at the ports
of entry in a manner that avoids adverse effects on legal trade and
travel. However, it is evaluated in the PEIS because it provides a
baseline against which the impacts of the other reasonable alternatives
can be compared.
The Facilities Development and Improvement Alternative would focus
on providing new permanent facilities or improvements to existing
facilities, such as Border Patrol stations, ports of entry, and other
facilities to allow CBP officials to operate more efficiently and
respond to situations more quickly. This alternative would help meet
CBP's goals because the new and improved facilities would make it more
difficult for cross-border violators to cross the border. It would also
divert traffic from or increase the capacity of the more heavily used
ports of entry, decreasing waiting times. The applicability of this
alternative would be limited, as most roads crossing the northern
border already have a crossing facility.
The Detection, Inspection, Surveillance, and Communications
Technology Expansion Alternative would focus on deploying more
effective detection, inspection surveillance, and communication
technologies in support of CBP activities. This alternative would
involve utilizing upgraded systems that would enable CBP to focus
efforts on identifying threat areas, improving agent and officer
communication systems, and deploying personnel to resolve incidents
with maximum efficiency. This alternative would meet CBP's goals by
improving CBP's situational awareness and allowing CBP to more
efficiently and effectively direct its resources for interdicting
cross-border violators.
The Tactical Security Infrastructure Deployment Alternative would
focus on constructing additional barriers, access roads, and related
facilities. The barriers would include selective fencing and vehicle
barriers at selected points along the border and would deter and delay
cross-border violators. The access roads and related facilities would
increase the mobility of agents and enhance their capabilities for
surveillance and for responding to various international border
violations. This alternative would help meet CBP's goals by
discouraging cross-border violators and improving CBP's capacity to
respond to threats, but would not assist CBP in identifying and
classifying threats.
The Flexible Direction Alternative would allow CBP to follow any of
the above directions in order to employ the most effective response to
the changing threat environment along the northern border. This
approach would allow CBP to respond flexibly to a constantly changing
threat environment.
Identified Preferred Alternative and Draft Record of Decision
As a result of the analysis in the PEIS, the Draft Record of
Decision (ROD) identifies the alternative that is most representative
of the approach CBP will employ in order to respond to changes in
security or trade and travel priorities or evolving threats within the
next five to seven years. CBP is making the Draft ROD available at this
time. The Final ROD will be issued no sooner than 30 days from the date
of publication of this notice.
The Final PEIS identifies the Detection, Inspection, Surveillance,
and Communications Expansion Alternative as the environmentally
preferred alternative. Likewise, the Draft ROD selects the Detection,
Inspection, Surveillance, and Communications Expansion Alternative as
the one that is most representative of the approach CBP will employ in
the next five to seven years; however, changes in the nature,
intensity, or locations of cross-border threats, or changes in national
security or trade, travel, and economic priorities may compel CBP to
adopt the Flexible Direction Alternative in the future. If such changes
in cross-border threats or national security priorities occurred within
five to seven years of the issuance of a final ROD, CBP would notify
the public that it was changing its selected alternative through its
Web sites (http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/about/sr/ and www.dhs.gov/nepa)
and through the Federal Register with a new Draft ROD and a 30 day
waiting period before making this change by issuing a Final ROD.
Otherwise, CBP would determine if it needed to supplement the PEIS in
accordance with the requirements found at 40 CFR 1502.9.
The Draft ROD also clarifies CBP's recognition that the actual
level of activities that might be required could very likely be
substantially lower than what is addressed in the PEIS.
NEPA
This environmental analysis is conducted pursuant to the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq., the
Council on Environmental Quality Regulations for Implementing the NEPA
(40 CFR parts 1500-1508), and Department of Homeland Security Directive
023-01 (renumbered from 5100.1), Environmental Planning Program of
April 19, 2006. NEPA addresses concerns about environmental quality and
the government's role in protecting it. The essence of NEPA is the
requirement that every Federal agency examine the environmental
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effects of any proposed action before deciding to proceed with it or
with some alternative. NEPA and the implementing regulations issued by
the President's Council on Environmental Quality call for agencies to
document the potential environmental effects of actions they are
proposing. Generally, agencies must make those documents public, and
seek public feedback on them.
In accordance with NEPA, the PEIS analyzes the effects on the
environment of CBP's Northern Border Activities. CBP has sought public
input on these studies and will use them in agency planning and
decisionmaking. Because NEPA is a uniquely broad environmental law and
covers the full spectrum of the natural and human environment, the PEIS
also addresses environmental considerations governed by other
environmental statutes such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act,
Endangered Species Act, and National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).
Next Steps
The Draft ROD is available to the public at the following Web
sites: http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/about/sr/ and www.dhs.gov/nepa. A
final decision will be made no sooner than 30 days from July 27, 2012
and issued in a Final ROD. The Final ROD will select an alternative to
guide CBP's activities along the northern border for the next five to
seven years. That decision will be published in the Federal Register in
a Final ROD and will be made available to the public at the same Web
site.
Dated: July 23, 2012.
Christopher S. Oh,
Acting Executive Director, Facilities Management and Engineering,
Office of Administration.
[FR Doc. 2012-18337 Filed 7-26-12; 8:45 am]
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