[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 2 (Tuesday, January 4, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Page 554]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-28594]



  Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 2 / Tuesday, January 4, 2005 / 
Notices  

[[Page 554]]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

[Docket No. 03-080-4]
RIN 0579-AB73


Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy; Minimal Risk Regions and 
Importation of Commodities; Availability of an Environmental Assessment

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of availability and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health 
Inspection Service has prepared an environmental assessment relative to 
a final rule published in today's issue of the Federal Register to 
amend the regulations regarding the importation of animals and animal 
products to recognize, and add Canada to, a category of regions that 
present a minimal risk of introducing bovine spongiform encephalopathy 
into the United States via live ruminants and ruminant products. The 
rule also sets out conditions under which certain live ruminants and 
ruminant products and byproducts may be imported from such regions. We 
are making the environmental assessment available to the public for 
review and comment.

DATES: We will consider all comments that we receive on or before 
February 3, 2005.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
     EDOCKET: Go to http://www.epa.gov/feddocket to submit or 
view public comments, access the index listing of the contents of the 
official public docket, and to access those documents in the public 
docket that are available electronically. Once you have entered 
EDOCKET, click on the ``View Open APHIS Dockets'' link to locate this 
document.
     Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Please send four copies 
of your comment (an original and three copies) to Docket No. 03-080-4, 
Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3C71, 4700 
River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state that your 
comment refers to Docket No. 03-080-4.
     E-mail: Address your comment to 
[email protected]. Your comment must be contained in the body 
of your message; do not send attached files. Please include your name 
and address in your message and ``Docket No. 03-080-4'' on the subject 
line.
    Reading Room: You may read any comments that we receive on the 
environmental assessment in our reading room. The reading room is 
located in room 1141 of the USDA South Building, 14th Street and 
Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC. Normal reading room hours are 
8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. To be sure 
someone is there to help you, please call (202) 690-2817 before coming.
    Other Information: You may view APHIS documents published in the 
Federal Register and related information, including the names of groups 
and individuals who have commented on APHIS dockets, on the Internet at 
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/webrepor.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Karen James-Preston, Director, 
Technical Trade Services, National Center for Import and Export, VS, 
APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 38, Riverdale, MD 20737-1231; (301) 734-
4356.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On November 4, 2003, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service 
(APHIS) published in the Federal Register (68 FR 62386-62405, Docket 
No. 03-080-1) a proposal to amend the regulations regarding the 
importation of animals and animal products to recognize a category of 
regions that present a minimal risk of introducing bovine spongiform 
encephalopathy (BSE) into the United States via live ruminants and 
ruminant products, and proposed to add Canada to this category. We also 
proposed to allow the importation of certain live ruminants and 
ruminant products and byproducts from such regions under certain 
conditions.
    In that proposed rule, we informed the public that we had prepared 
an environmental assessment (EA) regarding the potential impact on the 
quality of the human environment due to the importation of ruminants 
and ruminant products and byproducts from Canada under the conditions 
specified in the proposed rule. APHIS' review and analysis of the 
potential environmental impacts associated with those proposed 
importations were documented in the EA, titled ``Proposed Rulemaking to 
Establish Criteria for the Importation of Designated Ruminants and 
Ruminant Products from Canada into the United States, Environmental 
Assessment (October 2003).'' We made that EA available to the public 
for review and comment during the proposed rule's comment period, which 
originally closed on January 5, 2004, but was subsequently extended to 
April 7, 2004, by a notice published in the Federal Register on March 
8, 2004 (69 FR 10633-10636, Docket No. 03-080-2).
    During the comment period for the proposed rule, comments were 
received from the public regarding the EA. As a result of those 
comments, and in light of new circumstances that have arisen since the 
October 2003 EA was prepared (most notably the detection of BSE in a 
Holstein cow in Washington State in December 2003), APHIS has revised 
the October 2003 EA to discuss in more detail the potential impacts of 
concern for the human environment. We are making this revised EA, 
titled ``Rulemaking to Establish Criteria for the Importation of 
Designated Ruminants and Ruminant Products From Canada into the United 
States, Final Environmental Assessment (December 2004),'' available to 
the public for review and comment. We will consider all comments that 
we receive on or before the date listed under the heading DATES at the 
beginning of this notice.
    The EA may be viewed on the EDOCKET Web site (see ADDRESSES above 
for instructions for accessing EDOCKET) or on the APHIS Web site at 
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/bse/bse.html. You may request 
paper copies of the EA by calling or writing to the person listed under 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. Please refer to the title of the EA 
when requesting copies. The EA is also available for review in our 
reading room (information on the location and hours of the reading room 
is provided under the heading ADDRESSES at the beginning of this 
notice).
    The EA has been prepared in accordance with: (1) The National 
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended (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 1), and (4) 
APHIS' NEPA Implementing Procedures (7 CFR part 372).

    Done in Washington, DC, this 27th day of December 2004.
Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 04-28594 Filed 12-29-04; 3:00 pm]
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