[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 122 (Friday, June 25, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35657-35658]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-14455]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Coast Guard

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Maritime Administration

[USCG-2004-17659]


Compass Port LLC Liquefied Natural Gas Deepwater Port License 
Application; Preparation of Environmental Impact Statement

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS; and Maritime Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Notice of intent; notice of public meeting; and request for 
public comments.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration announce 
that the Coast Guard intends to prepare an environmental impact 
statement as part of the environmental review of the license 
application for the proposed Compass Port deepwater port, to be located 
approximately 11 miles south of Dauphin Island, Alabama. Publication of 
this notice begins a public scoping process that will help determine 
the scope of issues to be addressed in the environmental impact 
statement and identify the significant environmental issues related to 
this license application. Finally, this notice solicits public 
involvement in the scoping process, and announces public meetings and a 
public comment period to facilitate that involvement.

DATES: The public meetings will be held July 12, 13, and 14, 2004, from 
3 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Dauphin Island, Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, and 
Pascagoula, Mississippi, respectively. Each meeting will consist of an 
informational open house from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and a public scoping 
meeting from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Comments and related material must reach 
the docket on or before July 26, 2004.

ADDRESSES:

The Dauphin Island meetings will be held at:
    Dauphin Island Chamber of Commerce, 402 La Vente Street, Dauphin 
Island, Alabama 36528, 251-861-5524.

The Mobile meetings will be held at:
    Mobile Government Plaza, 205 Government Street, Mobile, Alabama 
36644, 251-574-5058.

The Pascagoula meetings will be held at:
    Jackson County Fairgrounds Fair Hall, 2902 Shortcut Road, 
Pascagoula, Mississippi 39567, 228-762-6043.

All meeting spaces will be wheelchair-accessible.
    You need not attend the meetings in order to comment. You may also 
submit comments identified by docket number USCG-2004-17659 to the 
Docket Management Facility at the U.S. Department of Transportation. To 
avoid duplication, please use only one of the following methods:
    (1) Electronically through the Web site for the Docket Management 
System, at http://dms.dot.gov.
    (2) By mail to the Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, Room PL-401, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 
20590-0001.
    (3) By fax to the Docket Management Facility at 202-493-2251.
    (4) By delivery to Room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif 
Building, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC, from 9 a.m. to 5 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone 
number is 202-366-9329.
    (5) By the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov/.
    The Docket Management Facility maintains the public docket for this 
notice. Comments and material received from the public will become part 
of this docket and will be available for inspection or copying in Room 
PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street 
SW., Washington, DC, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 
except Federal holidays. This docket may also be found on the Internet 
at http://dms.dot.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions on the 
application, this notice, or the meetings, or if you want to be 
notified when the draft and final environmental impact statements 
become available, call Mr. Kenneth Smith at 202-267-0578, or email at 
[email protected]. If you have questions on viewing or submitting 
material to the docket, call Ms. Andrea M. Jenkins, Program Manager, 
Docket Operations, telephone 202-366-0271.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Scoping Meetings and Request for Comments

    We seek public review of and comment on this license application, 
particularly with respect to the environmental review discussed in this 
notice. Public input on environmental concerns related to the 
application, suggested sources of relevant data, and suggested methods 
for environmental analysis are especially welcome.
    The Coast Guard will hold informational open houses and scoping 
meetings for interested members of the public, as described under DATES 
and ADDRESSES. Meeting facilities are wheelchair accessible. If you 
need other special assistance in order to participate in these sessions 
(for example, sign language interpretation), please contact the person 
named in FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, and we will try to make 
reasonable accommodation for your needs. We ask that you make such 
requests at least three (3) business days before the scheduled meeting. 
Include a contact person's name and telephone number, your specific 
need, and (for persons with hearing impairments) a TDD number.
    If you submit comments or related material to the docket (see DATES 
and ADDRESSES), please make your comment as specific as possible and 
give us the reasons for each comment. If you mail or hand-deliver 
printed documents, please submit them unbound and in a format suitable 
for copying and electronic filing, no larger than 8\1/2\ by 11 inches. 
If you submit comments or material by mail and want confirmation that 
it has reached the facility, please enclose a stamped, self-addressed 
postcard or envelope. We will consider all comments and material 
received during the comment period. All comments received will be 
posted, without change, to http://dms.dot.gov/ and will include any 
personal information you have provided.
    Anyone can search the electronic form of all comments received into 
any of our dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment 
(or signing the comment, if submitted on

[[Page 35658]]

behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review 
the Department of Transportation's Privacy Act Statement in the Federal 
Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477), or you may visit 
http://dms.dot.gov/.

Environmental Review

    Deepwater ports for the transportation, storage, or further 
handling of oil or natural gas must be licensed in accordance with the 
Deepwater Port Act of 1974, as amended, 33 U.S.C. 1501 et seq. (``the 
Act''). The Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration (MARAD) jointly 
process applications for deepwater port licenses. A notice of 
application for a proposed Compass Port liquefied natural gas deepwater 
port, to be located in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 11 miles south 
of Dauphin Island, Alabama, was published in the Federal Register on 
May 20, 2004 (69 FR 29142). That notice contains a fuller description 
of the proposed deepwater port. In addition to information previously 
published in the Federal Register, the applicant has identified five 
locations as possible fabrication sites for the concrete Gravity Based 
Structures (GBS's) which would be used to contain the LNG storage 
tanks. The proposed locations are:

Big Bend Site, Freeport, TX;
Zachary Construction Site, Harbor Island, TX;
Gulf Marine Fabrications, Ingleside, TX;
Kiewit Construction Site, Ingleside, TX;
Port of Altamira, Mexico.

The complete application, including environmental documentation 
provided by the applicant, is available in the public docket (see 
``Viewing Comments and Dockets,'' above).
    The Act establishes a licensing process for proposed deepwater 
ports, and that process includes review of the proposed port's natural 
and human environmental impacts. Consistent with the DWPA, this 
environmental review must comply with the National Environmental Policy 
Act of 1969 (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4332, and with the following authorities: 
Coast Guard regulations in 33 CFR part 148, Council on Environmental 
Quality regulations in 40 CFR parts 1500-1508, DOT Order 5610.1C 
(Procedures for Considering Environmental Impacts), and Coast Guard 
Commandant's Instruction (COMDTINST) M16475.1D. Environmental review 
includes public involvement, and consultation with States deemed 
adjacent to the proposed port (in this case, Alabama and Mississippi). 
The Coast Guard is the lead agency for determining the required scope 
of environmental review, and in this case the Coast Guard has 
determined that an environmental impact statement (EIS) must be 
prepared. Therefore, we are publishing the notice of intent described 
in 40 CFR 1508.22, to announce our intention to prepare and consider an 
EIS, and to describe our proposed action and possible alternatives, 
describe the scoping process required by 40 CFR 1501.7, and provide 
contact information. Contact information is provided above, under FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
    The proposed action requiring environmental review is the Federal 
licensing of the Compass Port deepwater port application. The 
alternatives to licensing approval are licensing with conditions 
(including conditions designed to mitigate environmental impact), and 
denying the application, which for purposes of environmental review is 
the ``no-action'' alternative.
    Public scoping is an early and open process for determining the 
scope of issues to be addressed in an EIS and for identifying the 
significant issues related to a proposed action. The scoping process 
begins with publication of this notice, extends through the public 
comment period (see DATES), and ends when the Coast Guard completes the 
following actions:
     Invites the participation of Federal, State, and local 
agencies, any affected Indian tribe, the applicant, and other 
interested persons;
     Determines the actions, alternatives, and impacts 
described in 40 CFR 1508.25;
     Identifies and eliminates from detailed study those issues 
that are not significant or that have been covered elsewhere;
     Allocates responsibility for preparing EIS components;
     Indicates any related environmental assessments or 
environmental impact statements that are not part of the EIS;
     Identifies other relevant environmental review and 
consultation requirements;
     Indicates the relationship between timing of the 
environmental review and other aspects of the application process; and
     At its discretion, exercises options provided in 40 CFR 
1501.7(b).
    Once the scoping process is complete, the Coast Guard will prepare 
a draft EIS, and we will publish a Federal Register notice announcing 
its public availability. If you want to be mailed or emailed the draft 
EIS notice of availability, please contact the person named in FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. We will provide the public with an 
opportunity to review and comment on the draft EIS. After the Coast 
Guard considers those comments, we will prepare the final EIS and 
similarly announce its availability and solicit public review and 
comment.

    Dated: June 21, 2004.
Howard L. Hime,
Acting Director of Standards, Marine Safety, Security, and 
Environmental Protection, U.S. Coast Guard.
Raymond R. Barberesi,
Director, Office of Ports and Domestic Shipping, U.S. Maritime 
Administration.
[FR Doc. 04-14455 Filed 6-22-04; 1:21 pm]
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