[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 68 (Monday, April 11, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18352-18353]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E5-1641]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

[Docket No. 03-101-4]


Environmental Impact Statement; Petition for Deregulation of 
Genetically Engineered Glyphosate-Tolerant Creeping Bentgrass

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of public meetings and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health 
Inspection Service will be holding two public scoping forums to promote 
further public involvement in the development of an environmental 
impact statement as part of our consideration of a petition received 
from Monsanto Company and The Scotts Company for a determination of 
nonregulated status for a glyphosate-tolerant creeping bentgrass 
(Agrostis stolonifera). The information received in response to this 
notice, as well as the information received previously, will be 
considered during development of an environmental impact statement 
prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act.

DATES: We will consider written comments submitted at public scoping 
forums that will be held in Chevy Chase, MD on May 3, 2005, and in 
Corvallis, OR on May 18, 2005. Each public forum will be held from 4 
p.m. to 8 p.m., local time. We will also consider written comments 
submitted by other means that we receive on or before June 1, 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. 03-101-4, 
Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD,

[[Page 18353]]

APHIS, Station 3C71, 4700 River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-
1238. Please state that your comment refers to Docket No. 03-101-4.
     In Person: Comment stations will be available at the 
public scoping forums. Specific instructions for submitting written 
comments will be provided at the commenting stations.
    Meeting Locations: The public scoping forums will be held at the 
following locations:
     National 4-H Youth Conference Center, Exhibition Hall, 
7100 Connecticut Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD. For directions or facilities 
information, call (301) 961-2801 or visit http://www.4hcenter.org.
     Oregon State University Conference Complex, CH2M Hill 
Alumni Center, Cascade Ballroom, 725 SW. 26th Street, Corvallis, OR. 
For directions or facilities information, call (541) 737-9300 or visit 
http://oregonstate.edu/conferences.
    Reading Room: You may read any comments that we receive on this 
docket 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 on the Internet at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/webrepor.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Susan M. Koehler, BRS, APHIS, 4700 
River Road Unit 147, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238; (301) 734-4886.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Nature of Public Forums

    As part of the scoping processes for the environmental impact 
statement (EIS), the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) 
will hold two public forums, the first in the Washington, DC area and 
the second in Corvallis, OR (see ADDRESSES above). These informal 
forums are designed to engage interested individuals from the public 
and elicit comments related to the scope of the EIS. The format will 
consist of informational posters and comment stations. Attendees will 
be able to walk through the forum during the open hours and interact 
with other attendees and APHIS personnel. There is no set schedule for 
each poster station, so the public may come and go at any time during 
the forum period. The goals of these gatherings are to allow APHIS to 
better understand the public's interests or concerns with respect to 
any potential change in the regulatory status of glyphosate-tolerant 
creeping bentgrass and to give the public an additional opportunity to 
relate issues or information to APHIS that individuals believe should 
be included in the scope of the EIS.

Background

    On April 14, 2003 APHIS received a petition (APHIS Petition No. 03-
104-01p) from Monsanto Company (St. Louis, MO) and The Scotts Company 
(Gervais, OR) (Monsanto/Scotts), requesting deregulation of a creeping 
bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L., synonym A. palustris Huds.) that 
has been genetically engineered for tolerance to the herbicide 
glyphosate. The Monsanto/Scotts petition states that the subject 
creeping bentgrass, designated as event ASR368, should not be regulated 
by APHIS because it does not present a plant pest risk. (The petition 
is available on the Internet at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/aphisdocs/03_10401p.pdf.)
    In a notice published in the Federal Register on January 5, 2004 
(69 FR 315-317, Docket No. 03-101-1), APHIS announced the receipt of 
the Monsanto/Scotts petition and solicited comments on whether the 
subject creeping bentgrass would present a plant pest risk. We 
solicited comments concerning our notice for 60 days, ending March 5, 
2004.
    On September 24, 2004, APHIS published in the Federal Register (69 
FR 57257 57260, Docket No. 03-101-2) a notice advising the public of 
our decision to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) as part 
of our consideration of petition 03-104-01p. Our decision was based on 
several factors: (1) Data associated with the petition, (2) a report 
prepared by the Weed Science Society of America on the weed management 
implications associated with the potential deregulation and 
commercialization of glyphosate-tolerant and glufosinate-tolerant 
creeping bentgrass varieties (see http://www.wssa.net/society/bentgrass.pdf), (3) our preliminary risk assessment (see http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/aphisdocs/03_10401p_ra.pdf), and (4) public 
comments received in response to the January 5, 2004 Federal Register 
notice (see https://web01.aphis.usda.gov/Bentgrass.nsf).
    Pursuant to the regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality 
in 40 CFR 1501.4(d), APHIS initiated the scoping process as mandated by 
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended (42 
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), beginning with the January 5, 2004 Federal 
Register notice. The comment period for our September 24, 2004 notice 
of intent was scheduled to close on October 24, 2004. However, we 
extended that comment period until December 2, 2004 (Docket No. 03-101-
3, 69 FR 67532-67533), to give interested parties additional time to 
respond. (You may view the comments received on our September 24, 2004 
notice by going to http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/LPOC/index.html 
and locating the entry for Docket No. 03-101-2.)
    With this notice, we are continuing the scoping process by inviting 
the public to attend public scoping forums. The purpose of these public 
scoping forums is to allow the public a venue to interact with APHIS 
representatives and to allow APHIS to solicit further information from 
the public on potential impacts of glyphosate tolerant creeping 
bentgrass on the human environment. We will accept written comments 
submitted at the public forums or via the other means described under 
ADDRESSES.
    Comments that provide information relevant to the scope identified 
in the September 24, 2004 Federal Register notice or that identify 
other potentially significant environmental issues or alternatives that 
should be examined in the context of the EIS process would be 
especially helpful. All comments that we received in response to the 
January 5 and September 24, 2004 notices referenced above will also be 
included as part of this scoping process and need not be resubmitted. 
We will fully consider all these comments and the comments resulting 
from these public forums in developing a final scope of study and in 
preparing the draft EIS. When the draft EIS is completed, we will 
publish a notice in the Federal Register announcing its availability 
and inviting the public to comment on it. Following our consideration 
of the comments received, APHIS will prepare a final EIS; its 
availability will also be announced in the Federal Register along with 
a 30-day public comment period, after which the Record of Decision will 
be issued.

    Done in Washington, DC, this 5th day of April 2005.
Elizabeth E. Gaston,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. E5-1641 Filed 4-8-05; 8:45 am]
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