[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 121 (Tuesday, June 24, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34043-34044]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-16487]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
[Docket No. 97-054-1]


Availability of an Environmental Assessment and Finding of No 
Significant Impact

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that an environmental assessment 
and finding of no significant impact have been prepared by the Animal 
and Plant Health Inspection Service relative to the proposed release 
into the environment of nonindigenous wasps for use as biological 
control agents to suppress the Pink Hibiscus Mealybug. The 
environmental assessment provides a basis for our conclusion that the 
release into the environment of the biological control agents will not 
present a risk of introducing plant pests into the United States or 
disseminating plant pests within the United States and will not have a 
significant impact on the quality of the human environment. Based on 
its finding of no significant impact, the Animal and Plant Health 
Inspection Service has determined that an environmental impact 
statement need not be prepared.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the environmental assessment and finding of no 
significant impact are available for public inspection at USDA, room 
1141, South Building, 14th Street and Independence Avenue SW., 
Washington, DC, between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
except holidays. Persons wishing to inspect those documents are 
requested to call ahead on (202) 690-2817 to facilitate entry into the 
reading room.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Dale E. Meyerdirk, Senior Staff 
Officer, Pink Hibiscus Mealybug Program, PPQ, APHIS, 4700 River Road 
Unit 135, Riverdale, MD 20737-1236, (301) 734-5667. For copies of the 
environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact, write to 
Dr. Dale E. Meyerdirk at the same address. Please refer to the title of 
the environmental assessment when ordering copies.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: As a part of a biological control project to 
suppress Pink Hibiscus Mealybug (PHM) (Maconellicoccus hirsutus 
[Green]) (Homoptera: Pseudococcidae), the Animal and Plant Health 
Inspection Service (APHIS) is proposing to release nonindigenous wasps 
in the genera Anagyrus and Gyranusoidea (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) in 
the continental United States and its Caribbean territories. PHM is 
currently established on the islands of St. Thomas and St. John in the 
U.S. Virgin Islands and on Puerto Rico. However, we anticipate that PHM 
will spread to other U.S. territories in the Caribbean and to the 
mainland United States. As PHM spreads, nonindigenous wasps in the 
genera Anagyrus and Gyranusoidea would be released in affected areas to 
suppress PHM. PHM is a devastating pest of cocoa, grapes, fiber crops, 
hibiscus, and many other field crops and ornamental plants. Wasps of 
the genus Anagyrus have controlled PHM in Egypt, India, and Hawaii, and 
wasps of the genus Gyranusoidae, closely related to Anagyrus wasps, 
offer similar potential as biological control agents for the 
suppression of PHM.
    To provide the public with documentation of APHIS' review and 
analysis of the environmental impact and plant pest risk associated 
with releasing these biological control agents into the environment, we 
have prepared an environmental assessment and finding of no significant 
impact relative to the release into the environment of the following 
biological control agents:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               Date of  
                                                              finding of
             Organisms               Title of environmental       no    
                                           assessment        significant
                                                                impact  
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Anagyrus spp. and Gyranusoidea spp.  ``Field Releases of       5/30/97. 
                                      Nonindigenous Species             
                                      of Anagyrus and                   
                                      Gyranusoidea                      
                                      (Hymenoptera:                     
                                      Encyrtidae) for                   
                                      Biological Control of             
                                      Pink Hibiscus                     
                                      Mealybug,                         
                                      Maconellicoccus                   
                                      hirsutus (Homoptera:              
                                      Pseudococcidae)''                 
                                      (June 1997).                      
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact 
have been prepared in accordance with: (1) The National Environmental 
Policy Act of 1969, as amended (NEPA) (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), (2) 
regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality for implementing 
the procedural provisions of NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), (3) USDA 
regulations implementing NEPA (7 CFR part 1b), and (4) APHIS' NEPA 
Implementing Procedures (7 CFR part 372).


[[Page 34044]]


    Done in Washington, DC, this 18th day of June 1997.
Terry L. Medley,
Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 97-16487 Filed 6-23-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-34-P