[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 20 (Monday, February 1, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5039-5040]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-2019]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

RIN 0648-XT38


Notice of Intent to Prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact 
Statement and Conduct Restoration Planning to Compensate for Injuries 
to Natural Resources in Portland Harbor, Oregon

AGENCY:  National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION:  Notice of intent to prepare a programmatic environmental 
impact statement and restoration plan; request for comments; notice of 
public scoping meeting.

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SUMMARY: NOAA, the Department of the Interior (U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service), the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Nez Perce 
Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation 
of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, 
the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and the Confederated Tribes 
of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon are collectively referred to as 
the ``Trustees'' for this case. The Confederated Tribes and Bands of 
the Yakima Nation, although a Trustee for Portland Harbor, has 
withdrawn from the Trustee Council and is no longer participating in 
the restoration planning efforts of the group of Trustees identified 
here. The Trustees for this case are providing notice of their efforts 
to plan restoration projects to compensate for injuries to natural 
resources in Portland Harbor in the Lower Willamette River. The 
Trustees seek damages from potentially responsible parties (PRPs) to 
restore, rehabilitate, replace or acquire the equivalent of natural 
resources and services injured by the release of hazardous substances. 
The Trustees will prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement 
(PEIS) to identify and address the environmental impacts of the 
proposed restoration, and they seek public involvement in development 
of a Draft Restoration Plan (RP). This notice explains the scoping 
process the Trustees will use to gather input from the public. Comments 
on what the Trustees should consider in the PEIS and RP may be 
submitted in written form or verbally at a public scoping meeting.

DATES:  A preliminary public scoping meeting date and time is scheduled 
as follows:
Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 6-8 p.m., City of Portland's Water Pollution 
Control Laboratory, 6543 N. Burlington Avenue, Portland, OR 97203
    Written comments must be received by March 15, 2010.

ADDRESSES:  Written comments on suggested alternatives and potential 
impacts should be sent to Megan Callahan Grant, NOAA Restoration 
Center, 1201 NE Lloyd Blvd. 1100, Portland, OR 97232.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:  Megan Callahan Grant at (503) 231-
2213 or e-mail at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Comprehensive Environmental 
Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), 42 U.S.C. 
9601 et seq., parties responsible for releasing hazardous substances 
into the environment are liable both for the costs of responding to the 
release (by cleaning up, containing or otherwise remediating the 
release) and for damages arising from injuries to publicly owned or 
managed natural resources resulting from the release. Natural resource 
damage assessment (NRDA) is the process of assessing the nature and 
extent of the resulting injury, destruction or loss of natural 
resources and the services they provide. NRDA also includes the process 
of determining the compensation required to make the public whole for 
such injuries, destruction or loss. CERCLA authorizes certain Federal 
and state agencies and Indian tribes to be designated as Trustees for 
affected natural resources. Under CERCLA and implementing regulations, 
these agencies and tribes are authorized to assess natural resource 
injuries and to seek compensation from responsible parties, including 
the costs of performing the damage assessment. The Trustees are 
required to use recovered damages only to restore, replace or acquire 
the equivalent of the injured or lost resources and services.
    In January of 2007, the Portland Harbor Trustee Council released a 
Pre-Assessment Screen (PAS) for the Portland Harbor Superfund site. The 
purpose of the PAS was to provide the foundation for determining the 
need to conduct a formal natural resource

[[Page 5040]]

damage assessment as authorized by CERCLA. The PAS concluded that 
natural resources in the area have been affected or potentially 
affected from releases or discharges of contaminants. Exposed living 
natural resources include, but are not limited to: (1) aquatic-
dependent mammals such as mink and river otter, and species they depend 
on as prey items; (2) migratory birds, including osprey, bald eagle, 
mergansers and other waterfowl, great blue heron, spotted sandpiper and 
other shorebirds, cliff swallow, belted kingfisher, and other species; 
(3) threatened and endangered species; (4) anadromous and resident 
fish, including salmon and steelhead; (5) reptiles and amphibians; (6) 
aquatic invertebrates; (7) wapato and other aquatic plants. Exposed 
habitat types and water natural resources include wetland and upland 
habitats, groundwater, and surface water. The services that are 
provided by these potentially affected natural resources include, but 
are not limited to: (1) habitat for trust resources, including food, 
shelter, breeding, foraging, and rearing areas, and other factors 
essential for survival; (2) consumptive commercial resource use such as 
commercial fishing; (3) consumptive recreational resource use such as 
hunting and fishing; (4) non-consumptive uses such as wildlife viewing, 
photography, and other outdoor recreation activities; (5) primary and 
secondary contact activities such as swimming and boating; (6) 
cultural, spiritual, and religious use; (7) option and existence 
values; (7) traditional foods. Based on the conclusions of the PAS, the 
Portland Harbor Trustee Council has determined that proceeding past the 
preassessment phase to a full natural resource damage assessment is 
warranted.
    Scientific literature and studies being conducted by the Trustees 
seek to document injuries from hazardous substances found in Portland 
Harbor. The objective of these studies is to demonstrate (1) how the 
contamination has harmed the organisms that inhabit the riverine 
sediments, (2) how the contamination has harmed and the fish and 
wildlife that come into contact with the contaminated sediments or that 
eat contaminated prey items, and (3) how the harm to the natural 
resources has impacted the people that use these resources. Concurrent 
with the damage assessment, the Trustees plan to carry out restoration 
planning, seeking comments from the public on how best to make the 
public whole for injuries documented through the damage assessment.
    As restoration planning proceeds, the Trustees will take advantage 
of opportunities to settle natural resource damage claims with willing 
parties. By identifying criteria and guidance to be used in selecting 
feasible restoration projects, the plan will provide a framework to 
maximize the benefits of specific restoration projects to the affected 
resources and services in the defined areas of the Lower Willamette 
River. The Trustees plan to consider alternatives that may include: (1) 
integrated habitat restoration actions that will benefit multiple 
species and services (those species listed above as potentially 
affected by releases of hazardous substances, such as salmon and 
resident fish, mammals such as mink and river otter, and aquatic-
dependent birds such as osprey and bald eagle); (2) species-specific 
restoration actions (for example, augmenting a species population 
through artificial production); and (3) a no-action alternative (no 
action takes place and the public is not compensated). Additional 
alternatives identified through the public involvement process may also 
be considered, to the extent that they demonstrate a nexus to natural 
resources injured by the release of hazardous substances.
    The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4321 et 
seq., and the Council on Environmental Quality regulations implementing 
NEPA under 40 CFR Chapter V, apply to restoration actions by Federal 
trustees. These authorities prescribe a scoping process the purpose of 
which is to identify the concerns of the affected public and Federal 
agencies, states, and Indian tribes, involve the public early in the 
decision making process, facilitate an efficient PEIS preparation 
process, define the issues and alternatives that will be examined in 
detail, and save time by ensuring that draft documents adequately 
address relevant issues. The scoping process reduces paperwork and 
delay by ensuring that important issues are addressed early.
    The Trustees will prepare an Administrative Record (Record). The 
Record will include documents that the Trustees relied upon during the 
development of the RP and PEIS. After preparation, the Record will be 
on file at the NOAA Restoration Center's offices in Portland, OR. 
Additional documents and information will be available at the following 
websites: http://www.darp.noaa.gov/ and http://www.fws.gov/oregonfwo/contaminants/PortlandHarbor/default.asp
    Release of a draft PEIS for public comment is planned for late 
2011. Specific dates and times for future events will be publicized 
when scheduled.

    Dated: January 26, 2010.
Patricia A. Montanio,
Director, Office of Habitat Conservation, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-2019 Filed 1-29-10; 8:45 am]
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