[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 230 (Monday, December 1, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67153-67154]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-29765]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of Army, Corps of Engineers


Notice of Availability; Final Environmental Impact Statement

AGENCY: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Defense (DoD).

ACTION: Announcement of Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) 
availability.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The King Cove Health and Safety Act (Section 353) of the 
Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act of 
1999 (Public Law 105-277) provided the Aleutians East Borough (AEB) 
with $20 million to construct a year-round marine-road transportation 
system between the Cities of King Cove and Cold Bay Alaska on the 
Alaska Peninsula. AEB proposes a 150-acre project consisting of a 17.2-
mile access road, two hovercraft ramps and terminals located on the 
Northeast Corner of Cold Bay and Cross Wind Cove on the west side of 
Cold Bay, and a hovercraft. The Corps of Engineers, Alaska District has 
evaluated the AEB's permit application under the authority of Section 
10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act and Section 404 of the Clean Air

[[Page 67154]]

Act. The EIS describes five alternatives that satisfy the purpose and 
needs for the proposed project. The alternatives are: (1) Northeast 
Corner Cold Bay--Hovercraft; (3) Lenard Harbor--Hovercraft; (4) Lenard 
Harbor--Ferry; (5) Lenard Harbor--Helicopter; and (6) the Isthmus Road 
alternative. Alternative 2 is the No Action Alternative. Alternative 6 
was included in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for 
comparison purposes only and cannot be selected for authorization by 
the decision-maker. Alternatives 1, 3, 4, and 5 would be constructed 
primarily on King Cove Corporation surface lands. Alternative 1 
requires a USFWS compatibility determination on Native corporation 
owned lands within the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, and no 
construction or operations would occur within the Congressionally 
designated Wilderness Area. Currently, Alternatives 3 and 4 are 
designated as the Environmentally Preferable Alternatives. The Corps of 
Engineers will use the EIS, public review process, and consideration of 
comments received, as a basis for the permit decision.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Leroy Phillips, Regulatory Branch, 
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, P.O. Box 6898, Elmendorf, AFB 99506-6898; 
by telephone at (907) 753-2712; (800) 478-2712 (In Alaska); or by Fax 
at (907) 753-5567. Additional information including a complete copy of 
the Public Notice, Executive Summary, FEIS and Appendices are available 
on the project web site: www.kingcoveaccesseis.com.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska 
District is the lead Federal agency with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service as a cooperating agency for this FEIS. During the Scoping 
process (February 16 to June 22, 2001) over 12,331 comments were 
received, with over 12,000 comments and opinions provided by e-mail. 
Many of these scoping comments expressed an objection to a road through 
the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness Area. Twenty-eight 
alternatives were preliminary considered during the scoping and the 
alternative development phase of the EIS process. Six alternatives were 
selected for further evaluation. The proposed action (Alternative 1, 
Northeast Corner Cold Bay (NeCB) / Hovercraft) and two alternatives 
(Alternative 3, Lenard Harbor / Hovercraft; and Alternative 4, Lenard 
Harbor / Ferry) were selected for detailed evaluation that incorporates 
a marine-road link design in compliance with Section 353 cited above. 
The required ``no action'' alternative is presented as Alternative 2. 
The two remaining alternatives are not in compliance with section 353; 
hence the $20 million Federal appropriations would not be available for 
project construction. These are an air-road link alternative 
(Alternative 5, Lenard Harbor / Helicopter) and an all road alternative 
(Alternative 6, Isthmus Road). The all road alternative (Alternative 6) 
is not a practicable alternative for evaluation under the section 
404(b)(1) Guidelines (40 CFR 230) for the Clean Water Act and cannot be 
authorized by the District Engineer. If an application is received by 
the USFWS under Title XI of ANCSA, a separate EIS would be required, 
with approval required by the Secretary of Interior, The President and 
Congress. No significant adverse impacts were identified for 
Alternatives 1, 3, 4 and 5. Significant beneficial impacts were noted 
for each action alternative centering on human and social resources 
with the ability to enhance safe, reliable and efficient emergency 
medical transport for King Cove residents and seasonal workers. For 
Alternatives 1, 3, 4 and 5 with the incorporation and implementation of 
mitigation measure, impacts to threatened and endangered or listed 
species (Steller's eider, Steller sea lion and Northern sea otter) were 
preliminarily determined not likely to adversely affect these species. 
For the same alternatives and incorporation of mitigation measures, 
determinations of would not likely impact Essential Fish Habitat, and 
Habitats of Particular Concern were concluded.
    Notice of Availability of the DEIS and the Department of Army Corps 
of Engineers Public Notice were published on August 8, 2003. The 
comment period on these documents was open until September 23, 2003. 
There were 6,391 comments received during this period. Of these: three 
were Federal agencies, two State of Alaska agencies, six Native 
governments, 14 local governments, 19 non-governmental organizations, 
38 people testified at the public hearings, 150 individual letters, and 
the rest of the comments were primarily form emails generated from two 
non-governmental organization promotions. Verbal testimony was received 
during the public hearings held in Cold Bay, Alaska on August 25, 2003, 
in King Cove Alaska on August 26, 2003, and in Anchorage, Alaska on 
September 10, 2003. After a review of the comments it was determined 
that the Commentors concerns were the same as those expressed during 
the above referenced scoping period. The District Engineer has 
determined that the issues identified by the commentors were properly 
addressed in the DEIS. Therefore, the FEIS would be in the form of the 
``abbreviated'' document in accordance with procedures outlined in 40 
CFR 1503.4(c).
    Comment Period: Comments on the FEIS should be received by the 
Corps of Engineers, Alaska District (address above) by December 31, 
2003 or 30-days from the publication date within the Federal Register, 
which ever is later.

Kevin D. Morgan,
North Section Chief, Regulatory, Corps of Engineers Alaska District.
[FR Doc. 03-29765 Filed 11-28-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3710-NL-P