[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 186 (Wednesday, September 26, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 54671-54672]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-19035]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Bureau of Customs and Border Protection

[USCBP-2007-0060]


Notice of Availability of a Final Programmatic Environmental 
Assessment (PEA) and a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) on the 
Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative in the Land and Sea Environments

AGENCY: Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Department of Homeland 
Security (DHS).

ACTION: Notice of availability.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: A Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) and 
Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Western Hemisphere 
Travel Initiative (WHTI) in the Land and Sea Environments are available 
to the public for review. The Final PEA documents a review of potential 
environmental impacts. Based on the Final PEA, a determination was made 
that the travel documents proposed for WHTI and use of the travel 
documents for implementation of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism 
Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA) will not have a significant impact on 
the quality of the human environment such that it would require further 
analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). 
The Final PEA addresses the substantive comments received on the Draft 
PEA during the public comment period. The Final PEA resulted in a FONSI 
that describes the programmatic action alternatives to be used as the 
approach to meet the requirements of WHTI. The Final PEA and FONSI are 
made available to the public in accordance with NEPA and the Council on 
Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations for implementing NEPA.

DATES: The Final PEA and FONSI will be available to the public on 
September 6, 2007.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the Final PEA and FONSI may be obtained by 
download through the Internet at http://www.cbp.gov/travel and http://www.regulations.gov or by writing to: CBP, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, 
NW., Room 5.4D, Attn: WHTI Environmental Assessment, Washington, DC 
20229.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 
WHTI Program Management Office, ATTN: Ms. Colleen Manaher, 1300 
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Room 5.4D, Washington, DC 20229, (202) 344-
1220, e-mail address: [email protected].

[[Page 54672]]


SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 7209 of IRTPA, as amended, provides 
that upon full implementation, U.S., Bermudian, and Canadian citizens, 
and Mexican nationals would be required to present a passport or such 
alternative documents as the Secretary of Homeland Security designates 
as satisfactorily establishing identity and citizenship upon entering 
the United States.
    In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) published in the Federal 
Register on June 26, 2007 (72 FR 35088), DHS and the Department of 
State (DOS) described the second phase of a joint plan, known as WHTI, 
to implement these new requirements. The NPRM proposed the specific 
documents that U.S. citizens and nonimmigrant aliens from Canada, 
Bermuda, and Mexico would be required to present when entering the U.S. 
at sea and land ports-of-entry from Western Hemisphere countries.
    DHS and CBP have analyzed the potential impacts on the human 
environment of several alternate ways of implementing WHTI at sea and 
land ports-of-entry based on technological and operational 
considerations as part of the decision-making process. The impact 
analysis in the Final PEA and FONSI focuses primarily on the effects of 
implementing WHTI at land ports-of-entry because the land environment 
is the most sensitive to the proposed document and technological 
changes associated with implementation of WHTI.
    Four technological and operational alternatives to meet the 
requirements to define and process secure, standardized travel 
documents under WHTI are analyzed in the PEA. The four alternatives 
are: (1) No-Action Alternative: maintain the status quo; (2) 
Standardized Documents Alternative: accept a limited number of document 
categories for admission at all sea or land ports-of-entry (LPOEs); (3) 
MRZ Alternative: Accept standardized documents that contain a Machine 
Readable Zone (MRZ); and (4) RFID Alternative: Accept standardized 
documents that contain Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology 
and an MRZ, for the use of RFID-enabled readers at the busiest LPOEs 
and MRZ at all LPOEs. As described in the PEA, air quality and noise 
are the primary resource areas that have the most potential to be 
affected by implementation of WHTI. However, no significant 
environmental impacts to these resources or any other human or natural 
environments from the implementation of any of the WHTI alternatives 
are anticipated.

    Dated: September 19, 2007.
Eugene H. Schied,
Assistant Commissioner, Office of Finance.
 [FR Doc. E7-19035 Filed 9-25-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 9111-14-P