[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 225 (Wednesday, November 23, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70862-70865]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-23233]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Coast Guard

[USCG-2005-22837]


Nationwide Automatic Identification System (NAIS); Preparation of 
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement

AGENCY: U.S. Coast Guard (USCG or Coast Guard), Department of Homeland 
Security (DHS).

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

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SUMMARY: The Coast Guard announces that it intends to prepare a 
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) as part of the 
environmental planning process for the Nationwide Automatic 
Identification System (NAIS) project. The NAIS project, a USCG and DHS 
Level 1 investment and major systems acquisition, was initiated as a 
component of implementing the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 
2002. Implementation of the NAIS, in part, involves installing 
Automatic Identification System (AIS) equipment and related support 
systems on and around communications towers or other structures along 
95,000 miles of coastline and inland rivers.
    The NAIS project is being conducted to provide the USCG with the 
capability to receive and distribute information from shipboard 
Automatic Identification System (AIS) equipment in order to enhance 
Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). The project will provide detection and 
identification of vessels carrying AIS equipment approaching or 
operating in the maritime domain where little or no vessel tracking 
currently exists.
    AIS is an international standard, approved by the International 
Maritime Organization (IMO), for ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore and shore-
to-ship communication of information, including vessel position, speed, 
course, destination, and other data of critical interest for maritime 
safety and security. The information provided by this system will 
support national maritime interests--from the safety of ports through 
collision avoidance, to the safety of the nation through detection and 
classification of vessels when they are still thousands of miles 
offshore.
    Publication of this notice begins a scoping process that identifies 
and determines the scope of environmental issues to be addressed in the 
PEIS. This notice requests public participation in the scoping process 
and provides information on how to participate.

DATES: The USCG will hold a public meeting concerning the scope of the 
PEIS. The public meeting will be held on Thursday, December 22, 2005, 
at the USCG Headquarters building in Washington, DC. The public meeting 
will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and will be preceded by an open 
house from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. The public meeting may end later than the 
stated time, depending on the number of persons wishing to speak.
    Comments and related material must reach the Docket Management 
Facility by December 23, 2005.

ADDRESSES: The public meeting and open house will be held in room 
number 2415 of U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters (Transpoint Building), 
2100 Second Street SW., Washington, DC 20593.
    You may submit comments identified by Coast Guard docket number 
USCG-2005-22837 to the Docket Management Facility at the U.S. 
Department of Transportation (DOT). To avoid duplication, please use 
only one of the following methods:
    (1) Web Site: http://dms.dot.gov.
    (2) Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001.
    (3) Fax: 202-493-2251.
    (4) Delivery: Room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif 
Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone 
number is 202-366-9329.
    (5) Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions on this notice, 
please call or e-mail Mr. David Wiskochil, NAIS Project Support Team, 
at 202-475-3118 or [email protected], respectively. If you have 
questions on viewing or submitting material to the docket, please call 
Ms. Andrea M. Jenkins, Program Manager, Docket Operations, at 202-366-
0271.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Request for Comments

    The Coast Guard requests public comments and other relevant 
information on environmental issues related to the proposed NAIS 
project. The scheduled public meeting is not the only opportunity you 
have to comment. In addition to or instead of providing comments at the 
meeting, you can submit comments to the Docket Management Facility 
during the public comment period (see DATES). The USCG 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. The USCG has an agreement with the Department of 
Transportation (DOT) to use the Docket Management Facility. Please see 
DOT's ``Privacy Act'' paragraph below.
    Submitting comments: If you submit a comment, please include your 
name and address, identify the docket number for this notice (USCG-
2005-22837) and give the reason for each comment. You may submit your 
comments by electronic means, mail, fax, or delivery to the Docket 
Management Facility at the address under ADDRESSES; but please submit 
your comments by only one means. If you submit them by mail or 
delivery, submit them in an unbound format, no larger than 8\1/2\ by 11 
inches, suitable for copying and electronic filing. If you submit them 
by mail and would like to know that they reached the Facility, please 
enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard or envelope. The USCG will 
consider all comments received during the comment period.
    Viewing comments and documents: To view comments, go to http://dms.dot.gov at any time, click on ``Simple Search,'' enter the last 
five digits of the docket number for this rulemaking, and click on 
``Search.'' You may also visit the Docket Management Facility in room 
PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, 
SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
except Federal holidays.
    Privacy Act: 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 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.

Public Meeting and Open House

    The Coast Guard invites you to learn about the proposed NAIS 
project at an informational open house, and to identify and comment on 
environmental issues related to the proposed program at a public 
meeting. Your comments will help the Coast Guard identify and refine 
the scope of the environmental issues to be addressed in the PEIS.
    In order to allow everyone a chance to speak at the public meeting, 
the Coast Guard may limit speaker time, or extend the meeting hours, or 
both. When you rise to speak, you must identify yourself, and any 
organization you represent, by name. Your remarks will be recorded or 
transcribed for inclusion in the public docket.
    You may submit written material at the public meeting, either in 
place of or in addition to speaking. Written material must include your 
name and address, and will be included in the public docket.
    The USCG's public meeting location at USCG Headquarters is 
wheelchair-accessisble. If you plan to attend the

[[Page 70864]]

open house or public meeting, and need special assistance such as sign 
language interpretation or other reasonable accommodation, please 
notify the Coast Guard (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT) at least 3 
business days in advance. Include your contact information as well as 
information about your specific needs.

Background and Purpose

    The Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) of 2002 (46 U.S.C. 
70113) directed the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to 
``implement a system to collect, integrate, and analyze information 
concerning vessels operating on or bound for waters subject to the 
jurisdiction of the United States.'' Furthermore, Congress appropriated 
funds to the Coast Guard for ``the acquisition and installation * * * 
of the shore-based universal AIS coverage system in ports nationwide.'' 
The Coast Guard will implement such a system in support of MDA through 
the proposed NAIS project.
    AIS is an international standard (International Telecommunications 
Union Recommendation ITU-R M. 1371-1) for ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore 
and shore-to-ship communication of information, including vessel 
position, speed, course, destination and other data of critical 
interest for maritime safety and security. AIS equipment is required 
domestically and internationally aboard major commercial vessels. AIS 
is a communication system that relies upon vessels to properly transmit 
their position, identification, speed, and other navigational 
information.
    Certain vessels are currently subject to carriage requirements for 
AIS equipment. Despite the nation's critical homeland security need to 
track these vessels, USCG does not have the network of receivers and 
transmitters necessary to capture, display, and use this AIS 
information except in a few select port areas. The information provided 
by this system will support all of the nation's maritime interests--
from the safety of ports through collision avoidance, to the safety of 
the nation through detection and classification of vessels when they 
are still thousands of miles offshore. The NAIS project will provide 
the United States with the ability to fully utilize the IMO 
international standard and requirements outlined in MTSA of 2002.
    Although mandated by Congress, consideration of the NAIS project 
includes analysis of the proposed project's natural and human 
environmental impacts. The Coast Guard is the lead agency for 
determining the scope of this review, and in this case the Coast Guard 
has determined that review must include preparation of a PEIS. This 
notice of intent is required by 40 CFR 1508.22, and briefly describes 
the proposed action and possible alternatives and our proposed scoping 
process. You can address any questions about the proposed action, the 
scoping process, or the PEIS to the Coast Guard NAIS Project Office 
(see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT).

Proposed Action and Alternatives

    The Proposed Action to be analyzed in the PEIS is the broad scope 
of implementation of the NAIS project. The PEIS will provide a general 
level of analysis of alternatives and environmental impacts because 
specific implementation sites and methods are not currently known. The 
PEIS will serve as a top tier environmental analysis of the general 
project of installing a nationwide AIS-based vessel detection, 
identification, tracking and communication system. Following completion 
of the PEIS, the USCG will conduct site-specific environmental analysis 
coincident with project implementation, once specific sites become 
known. The following alternatives for establishing shore-based antenna 
sites (e.g., towers) will be evaluated in the PEIS: Use of existing or 
currently proposed government sites; Lease of commercial sites; 
Construction of new sites. The preferred alternative is to implement a 
combination of the shore-based antenna site alternatives. The PEIS will 
also discuss the No Action Alternative as required under NEPA.

Scoping Process

    Public scoping is an early and open process for identifying and 
determining the scope of issues to be addressed in the PEIS. Scoping 
begins with this notice, continues through the public comment period 
(see DATES), and ends when the Coast Guard has completed the following 
actions:
     Invites the participation of Federal, State, and local 
agencies, any affected Indian tribe 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 PEIS components;
     Indicates any related environmental assessments or 
environmental impact statements that are not part of the PEIS;
     Other relevant environmental review and consultation 
requirements;
     Indicates the relationship between timing of the 
environmental review and other aspects of the proposed program; and
     At its discretion, exercises the options provided in 40 
CFR 1501.7(b).
    Once the scoping process is complete, the Coast Guard will prepare 
a draft PEIS, and will publish a Federal Register notice announcing its 
public availability. (If you want that notice to be sent to you, please 
contact the Coast Guard Project Office point of contact identified in 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT). You will have an opportunity to 
review and comment on the draft PEIS. Additionally, the Coast Guard 
anticipates holding a public meeting in May, 2006 in Washington, DC to 
present the draft PEIS and receive public comments regarding the 
document. The Coast Guard will consider all comments received and then 
prepare the final PEIS. As with the draft PEIS, the Coast Guard will 
announce the availability of the final PEIS and once again give you an 
opportunity for review and comment.

Summary of the Proposed NAIS Project

    The general NAIS concept of operations is to provide AIS 
functionality in support of all national maritime missions, 
particularly navigation safety and maritime security. NAIS is expected 
to consist of a system of AIS receivers, transmitters, transceivers, 
repeaters and other equipment located on shoreside installations and 
remote platforms potentially including buoys, offshore platforms, 
aircraft and spacecraft as needed to receive, distribute, and use the 
information transmitted by vessels that operate AIS equipment and 
transmit data to these vessels.
    NAIS will send and receive AIS messages, via a very high frequency 
(VHF) data link, to and from AIS equipped vessels, Aids to Navigation, 
and search and rescue (SAR) aircraft. Nationwide AIS will leverage 
several types of platforms to support AIS receive and transmit 
infrastructure. While some support receive-only capabilities (e.g., 
satellites, buoys, and aircraft), others may support receive and 
transmit capabilities (e.g., towers and platforms). AIS message data 
will be transported between system components over a wide-area network 
(WAN) and diverse, remote site connectivity (e.g., leased analog 
circuits, microwave).

[[Page 70865]]

    NAIS will process (e.g., validate, filter, etc.) and store the 
data. Some NAIS functions may be implemented by enhancing existing 
systems. These systems, while not part of NAIS, are included in the 
context of the systems' operations. Primarily, it is expected that 
these systems (e.g., Ports and Waterways Safety System [PAWSS], Sector 
Command Centers [SCC], Maritime Information Safety and Law Enforcement 
[MISLE], Vessel Traffic Services [VTS]) will provide data processing 
functions (e.g., vessel tracking correlation, intelligence processing, 
anomaly detection) and user interfaces necessary to meet all the 
requirements for fully using AIS data. Some users of NAIS capabilities 
(e.g., Deepwater assets and other government agencies) may indirectly 
access AIS data via other systems.
    NAIS will complement other surveillance and intelligence systems 
greatly aiding the essential process of identifying vessels requiring 
further investigation and action. NAIS information will be displayed in 
the USCG national maritime COP and shared, along with correlated data 
and intelligence as appropriate, with other DHS and federal agencies. 
Unclassified portions of the COP will also be available to local port 
partners in support of security and safety operations. This information 
will be invaluable to agencies, such as Customs and Border Patrol 
(CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the 
Transportation Security Administration (TSA), as it will provide real-
time location data on all major cargo and other commercial vessels in 
the maritime domain.

    Dated: November 9, 2005.
J.P. Currier,
Rear Admiral, United States Coast Guard, Assistant Commandant for 
Acquisition.
[FR Doc. 05-23233 Filed 11-22-05; 8:45 am]
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