[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 144 (Wednesday, July 26, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 46034]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-18936]



[[Page 46034]]

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Coast Guard

[CGD09-00-015]


Availability of Final Great Lakes Icebreaking Environmental 
Impact Statement

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DOT.

ACTION: Notice of Availability of Great Lakes Icebreaking Final 
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

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SUMMARY: The Coast Guard announces the completion and availability of a 
final environmental impact statement analyzing icebreaking on the Great 
Lakes.

DATES: The Coast Guard expects to make a decision regarding icebreaking 
operations on the Great Lakes after the EIS has been available to the 
public for 30 days. The Coast Guard will publish a document announcing 
the decision in the Federal Register.

ADDRESSES: The Coast Guard's point of contact for the EIS is Mr. Frank 
Blaha at the U.S. Coast Guard Civil Engineering Unit, 1240 East Ninth 
Street Room 2179, Cleveland, Ohio 44199-2060, Telephone (216) 902-6258. 
A copy of the EIS will be sent to those individuals who submitted 
substantive comments on the draft EIS. Any other interested party may 
request a copy of the EIS by writing or calling the National Technical 
Information Service, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, Virginia, 
22161, (800) 553-6847 and asking for document number PB 2000-105-877.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Proposed Action

    The Coast Guard proposes to continue its icebreaking operations on 
the Great Lakes.

Discussion of Announcement

    On December 21, 1936, the President ordered the Coast Guard to keep 
``open to navigation by means of icebreaking * * * channels and harbors 
in accordance with the reasonable demands of commerce.'' Executive 
Order 9,521 (1936) reprinted in 14 U.S.C. 81. Icebreaking is now one of 
the Coast Guard's primary duties. In the Great Lakes, most icebreaking 
has been performed in the same way, and by the same ship, since the 
Coast Guard Cutter MACKINAW was commissioned in 1944.
    The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was enacted in 1970. 
The law requires an EIS to be prepared when a proposed major federal 
action has a significant environmental impact. 42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C). A 
``proposal'' exists under NEPA's regulations ``at that stage in the 
development of an action when an agency * * * has a goal and is 
actively preparing to make a decision on one or more alternative means 
of accomplishing that goal.'' 40 CFR 1508.23. Environmental analyses of 
ongoing activities need only be discussed in an EIS when an operation 
undergoes a change which itself is a major federal action.
    There is no proposal to make a major change in the Coast Guard's 
long-standing domestic icebreaking program on the Great Lakes. Instead, 
concerns were raised in 1993 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and 
the Michigan Department of Natural Resources that ship transits made 
possible by icebreaking could have an adverse environmental impact on 
wetlands, fish populations, and fish egg development. The Coast Guard 
met with representatives of these organizations and agreed to look into 
the matter. A resultant memorandum of understanding required the Coast 
Guard to ``update its EIS as required by NEPA concerning its 
icebreaking activities in the Great Lakes and in the St. Marys River.'' 
We also agreed to conduct 3-5 years of monitoring studies on fish 
spawning and emergent wetlands. The studies have been completed and 
they clearly demonstrate that icebreaking does not have the adverse 
environmental consequences suspected in 1993.
    The EIS being made public today relies on those studies and finds 
that icebreaking has no significant impact on the Great Lakes 
environment. Publishing this final EIS satisfies the Coast Guard's 1993 
commitment to update its EIS concerning Great Lakes icebreaking. We 
expect to make a decision regarding icebreaking operations on the Great 
Lakes after the EIS has been available to the public for 30 days.

    Dated: July 17, 2000.
James D. Hull,
Rear Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard, Commander, Ninth Coast Guard District
[FR Doc. 00-18936 Filed 7-25-00; 8:45 am]
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