[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 96 (Thursday, May 18, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28882-28883]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-7529]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[CO930-06-9260NQ-COQB]


Notice of Availability of the Alamosa River Watershed Restoration 
Master Plan and Environmental Assessment

AGENCIES: Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior, lead 
agency; Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, 
cooperating agency; Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, 
cooperating agency.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: This notice advises the public and other agencies of the 
availability of the Alamosa River Watershed Restoration Master Plan and 
Environmental Assessment (``Plan'') prepared under the direction of 
Federal and state natural resource trustees, pursuant to subpart G of 
the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan 
(40 CFR 300.600 and 300.610) and Executive Order 12580. The Department 
of the Interior (represented by the Bureau of Land Management and the 
Fish and Wildlife Service), Department of Agriculture (represented by 
the Forest Service), and the State of Colorado (represented by the 
Departments of Law, Natural Resources, and Public Health and the 
Environment) are Trustees for natural resources considered in this 
Plan. The Alamosa River is located in the San Luis Valley of south-
central Colorado. The Plan describes the Alamosa River environment and 
the impacts to watershed resources and land uses, and briefly describes 
proposed restoration projects.

DATES: On November 10, 2005, the Authorized Official (Colorado State 
Director of the Bureau of Land Management) of the Department of the 
Interior issued a Decision Record, which approved the preferred 
alternative in the Plan and Environmental Assessment. The Decision 
Record also referred to an attached Finding of No Significant Impact to 
the human environment, which concluded that an Environmental Impact 
Statement is not required. The Regional Director of the Fish and 
Wildlife Service concurred with release of the Plan. The Regional 
Forester of the Forest Service concurred with the Decision Record for 
the Plan and the Finding of No Significant Impact for the Environmental 
Assessment.
    Addresses and Further Information: The Plan is available at the 
following Internet address: http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/nrda/SummitvilleColo/Summitville.htm. Copies of the document are available 
for on-site review in the Del Norte Public Library, 190 Grand Avenue, 
Del Norte, CO 81131 or Department of Agriculture, Conejos County 
Natural Resources Conservation Service, 15 Spruce, La Jara, CO 81140. 
The Decision Record and further information is available from Robert 
Robinson, Bureau of Land Management, 2850 Youngfield Street, Lakewood, 
CO 80215, telephone 303-239-3642, or via e-mail at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Plan comprehensively addresses all 
watershed restoration needs, including those resulting from injuries 
pursuant to the federal Natural Resource Damage Assessment and 
Restoration (NRDAR) regulations in Title 43 Code of Federal Regulations 
part 11, as well as restoration needs arising from other impacts. The 
Plan also outlines several sets of projects based on competing needs 
and limited funding, and identifies a preferred restoration 
alternative, consisting of a project set that best addresses the 
various resource impacts. The Decision Record approves the preferred 
alternative, which includes projects for greater in-stream flow, 
cleaner surface water, river bank stabilization, restored riparian 
areas, abandoned mine reclamation, and increased public access to the 
river corridor. The Plan envisions funds from the NRDAR settlement, 
along with matching funds, grants, and other funding sources, to 
support the preferred alternative. The restoration actions ultimately 
undertaken will result from proposals for specific actions that respond 
to the needs and projects identified in the preferred restoration 
alternative. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and 
Liability Act (CERCLA, more commonly known as the Federal ''Superfund'' 
law) [42 U.S.C. 9601 et seq.] and the Federal Water Pollution Control 
Act, commonly known as the Clean Water Act (CWA) [33 U.S.C. 1251 et 
seq.] authorize States, federally recognized Tribes, and certain 
Federal agencies, which have the authority to manage or control natural 
resources, to act as ''trustees'' on behalf of the public, to restore, 
rehabilitate, replace, and/or acquire natural resources equivalent to 
those harmed by hazardous substance releases.

[[Page 28883]]

    The objective of the NRDAR process in the Alamosa River watershed 
is to compensate the public, through restoration actions, for losses to 
natural resources and services that have been caused by releases of 
toxic metals into the watershed. Restoration activities will be funded 
in part by natural resource damages recovered in settlement from the 
party responsible for recent contamination emanating from the 
Summitville mine in the upper watershed. The damages received must be 
used to restore, rehabilitate, replace and/or acquire the equivalent of 
those natural resources that have been injured.
    The Trustees have a Memorandum of Agreement which establishes a 
Trustee Council to develop and implement a restoration plan for 
ecological restorations in the Alamosa River watershed. The Trustees 
followed the NRDAR regulations found at Title 43 Code of Federal 
Regulations part 11 for development of the Plan. The Trustees have 
worked together, in a cooperative process with the public, to determine 
appropriate restoration activities to address natural resource injuries 
caused by Summitville releases of hazardous substances, as well as 
other watershed impacts identified during planning. The Plan addresses 
the Trustees' overall approach to restore, rehabilitate, replace, or 
acquire the equivalent of natural resources injured by the release of 
toxic metals into the Alamosa River watershed environment. The public 
was invited to review and comment on the draft Plan during a 30-day 
period, and to attend a meeting near the site during which important 
elements of the draft Plan were presented. Approximately 29 comments 
were received, to which responses have been prepared and included, 
along with the comments, in the final Plan. Some comments prompted 
minor text changes, but no comments required significant changes to the 
document, or to the restoration approach that the Trustees and public 
have selected.

    Authority: 42 U.S.C. 4321-4347.

    Dated: April 4, 2006.
Robert H. Robinson,
Summitville Trustee Council Representative, Division of Energy, Lands 
and Minerals, Colorado State Office, Bureau of Land Management.
 [FR Doc. E6-7529 Filed 5-17-06; 8:45 am]
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