[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 193 (Wednesday, October 5, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61696-61699]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-25758]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-9475-8]


New York State Prohibition of Discharges of Vessel Sewage; 
Receipt of Petition and Tentative Affirmative Determination

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice--Receipt of Petition and Tentative Affirmative 
Determination.

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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to Clean Water Act, 
Section 312(f)(3) (33 U.S.C. 1322(f)(3)), the State

[[Page 61697]]

of New York has determined that the protection and enhancement of the 
quality of the New York State portions of Lake Ontario requires greater 
environmental protection, and has petitioned the United States 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 2, for a determination 
that adequate facilities for the safe and sanitary removal and 
treatment of sewage from all vessels are reasonably available for those 
waters, so that the State may completely prohibit the discharge from 
all vessels of any sewage, whether treated or not, into such waters.
    New York State (NYS or State) has proposed to establish a Vessel 
Waste No Discharge Zone (NDZ) for the New York State portion of Lake 
Ontario including the waters of the Lake within the New York State 
boundary, stretching from the Niagara River (including the Niagara 
River up to Niagara Falls) in the west, to Tibbetts Point at the Lake's 
outlet to the Saint Lawrence River in the east. The proposed No 
Discharge Zone encompasses approximately 3,675 square miles and 326 
linear shoreline miles, including the navigable portions of the Lower 
Genesee, Oswego, Black Rivers and numerous other tributaries and 
harbors, embayments of the Lake including Irondequoit Bay, Sodus Bay, 
North/South Ponds, Henderson Bay, Black River Bay and Chautmont Bay, 
and abundance of formally designated habitats and waterways of local, 
state, and national significance.

DATES: Comments regarding this tentative determination are due by 
November 4, 2011.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
     E-mail: [email protected]. Include ``Comments on 
Tentative Affirmative Decision for NYS Lake Ontario NDZ'' in the 
subject line of the message.
     Fax: 212-637-3891
     Mail and Hand Delivery/Courier: Moses Chang, U.S. EPA 
Region 2, 290 Broadway, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10007-1866. Deliveries 
are only accepted during the Regional Office's normal hours of 
operation (8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding Federal 
holidays), and special arrangements should be made for deliveries of 
boxed information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Moses Chang, (212) 637-3867, e-mail 
address: [email protected]. The EPA Region 2 NDZ Web site is: http://www.epa.gov/region02/water/ndz/index.html. A copy of the State's NDZ 
petition can be found there.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is hereby given that the State of New 
York (NYS or State) has petitioned the United States Environmental 
Protection Agency, Region 2, (EPA) pursuant to section 312(f)(3) of 
Public Law 92-500 as amended by Public Law 95-217 and Public Law 100-4, 
that adequate facilities for the safe and sanitary removal and 
treatment of sewage from all vessels are reasonably available for the 
NYS portion of Lake Ontario. Adequate pumpout facilities are defined as 
one pumpout station for every 300--600 boats pursuant to the Clean 
Vessel Act: Pumpout Station and Dump Station Technical Guidelines 
(Federal Register, Vol. 59, No. 47, March 10, 1994).
    As one of the nation's premier waterbodies, the open waters, 
harbors, embayments, creeks and wetlands of Lake Ontario support a 
remarkable diversity of uses--fish spawning areas, breeding grounds, 
valuable habitats, commercial and recreational boating, and a profusion 
of recreational resources. The Lake serves as an economic engine for 
the region and a place of great natural beauty, heavily used and 
enjoyed by the citizens of the many lakeshore communities and 
throughout the Lake Ontario Watershed, which encompasses about one-
quarter of New York State. It is also a source of drinking water for 
760,000 people. The New York State Department of Environmental 
Conservation (DEC) developed this petition in collaboration with New 
York State Department of State (DOS) and the New York State 
Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) in order to establish a 
vessel waste No Discharge Zone (NDZ) on the open waters, tributaries, 
harbors and embayments New York State's portion of Lake Ontario.
    In 1987, the governments of Canada and the United States made a 
commitment, under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA), to 
develop a Lakewide Management Plan (LaMP) for each of the five Great 
Lakes. This commitment was adopted into Federal law as part of the 1987 
amendments to the U.S. Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 
1268). The Lake Ontario LaMP is a binational, cooperative effort to 
restore and protect the health of Lake Ontario by reducing chemical 
pollutants entering the lake and addressing the needs of fish and 
wildlife living in the watershed.
    Virtually all of the waters of Lake Ontario are classified by New 
York State as Class A. As such, the best usages of these waters are as 
``a source of water supply for drinking, food processing purposes; 
primary and secondary contact recreation; and fishing.'' Furthermore, 
this classification states that such waters, if subjected to treatment 
typical of and appropriate for water supply use, will meet New York 
State Department of Health (DOH) drinking water standards and are or 
will be considered safe and satisfactory for drinking water purposes.
    Currently there are ten municipal water supplies that draw water 
from Lake Ontario, serving over 760,000 people in New York State. But 
the Lake's significance as a water supply goes beyond its current use. 
As part of the Great Lakes System, Lake Ontario is one component of a 
reservoir that contains 95 percent of the fresh surface water in the 
United States and is the largest single reservoir on earth. As such, 
the importance of protecting this water source cannot be overstated.
    The Clean Vessel Act requires that one pumpout station be available 
for every 300--600 boats in order to support a No Discharge Zone 
Determination. Accordingly, for EPA to determine that adequate 
facilities for the safe and sanitary removal and treatment of sewage 
from all vessels are reasonably available for the New York State 
portion of Lake Ontario, the State must demonstrate that the pumpout-
to-vessel ratio meets the requirement. In its petition, the State 
described the recreational and commercial vessels that use Lake 
Ontario, and the pumpout facilities that are available for their use.
    Based on recreational boater registrations obtained through the New 
York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation's 2009 
Boating Report for the counties of Niagara, Orleans, Monroe, Wayne, 
Cayuga, Oswego and Jefferson (all of which have shoreline on Lake 
Ontario), a general estimate places the recreational vessel population 
at 10,050.
    There are 28 pumpout facilities funded by the Clean Vessel 
Assistance Program (CVAP) in the relevant areas of the Lake. There are 
also 9 other (non-CVAP funded) pumpouts available for recreational and 
small commercial vessels for a total 37 facilities. These facilities 
either discharge to a holding tank, to a municipal wastewater treatment 
plant or to an on-site septic system. With 37 pumpouts available for 
the 10,050 recreational and small commercial vessels that use the lake, 
the pumpout-to-vessel ratio for those vessels is 1:272 (37:10,050). 
Because 7 of the nine non-CVAP funded pumpout facilities did not 
provide sufficient facility information in this petition we also 
evaluated the vessel to pumpout ratio using a more conservative total 
of 30 pumpout facilities for 10,050 boats yielding a 1:335 pumpout per 
vessel

[[Page 61698]]

ratio. (Note: These are the 30 pumpout facilities identified in the 
table below.) Based on NYS 2009 boater registrations, the pumpout 
facility ratios for each individual county are as follows: Orleans 
(1:138), Jefferson (1:193), Niagara (1:223), Oswego (1:231), Wayne 
(1:234), Cayuga (1:252), and Monroe (1:449). Therefore, adequate 
pumpout facilities for the safe and sanitary removal and treatment of 
sewage for recreational vessels are reasonably available for the New 
York portions of the lake as a whole and for each county on the lake 
along the Lake Ontario shore line.
    In addition, Lake Ontario is used by commercial vessels. Commercial 
vessel populations were estimated using data from the National Ballast 
Information Clearinghouse (NBIC), which records ballast water discharge 
reports for arriving ships, and interviews with administrators involved 
with the two main commercial ports on Lake Ontario, Oswego and 
Rochester.
    In the calendar year 2010, ballast manifests showed 73 vessel 
arrivals at the Port of Oswego, 43 of these ships were bulkers carrying 
a wide array of goods, such as petroleum, aluminum and salt. The other 
30 ships consist of passenger ships, tugs and barges. During 2010 
survey, ballast manifests showed 24 commercial vessels arriving at the 
Port of Rochester, one passenger ship and 23 bulkers. As with the Port 
of Oswego, all other commercial vessels in the Port of Rochester are 
transient. Summing these sources, an upper bound estimate of commercial 
boat traffic in Lake Ontario using New York ports is approximately 150 
vessels a year, less than one every other day. Although there are no 
fixed commercial vessel pumpouts at the Ports of Oswego or Rochester, 
mobile pumpout services are available for hire. The Port of Rochester 
reported that ``honey dipper'' trucks have come in to pumpout 
commercial vessels on occasion while they are docked in the Port. The 
Port of Rochester supplies all commercial vessels with the names of 
pumpout trucks (as well as other services, such as solid waste 
handlers) at the time they receive their permits to dock at the 
terminal. Therefore, it appears that there are adequate pumpout 
facilities to serve the commercial vessels in Lake Ontario.
    Based on the above information which supports that adequate 
facilities for the safe and sanitary removal and treatment of sewage 
from all vessels are reasonably available for the Lake Ontario, the 
State may completely prohibit the discharge from all vessels of any 
sewage, whether treated or not, into such waters.
    A list of the pumpout facilities, phone numbers, locations, hours 
of operation, water depth and fee is provided as follows:

                             List of Pumpouts in the Lake Ontario NDZ Proposed Area
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                                                    Contact       Days and hours    Water depth
   Number          Name            Location       information     of  operation       (feet)            Fee
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1..........  Youngstown Yacht  Lower Niagara       716-754-8245  Apr-Nov, Mon-            9'-12'           $5.00
              Club.             River.                            Fri, 9 a.m.-5
                                                                  p.m..
2..........  NYSOPRSHP-Wilson- Tuscarora Bay..     716-278-1775  24 hours.......              5'           $5.00
              Tuscarora SP
              Marina.
3..........  Tuscarora Yacht   Tuscarora Bay..     716-434-4475  9 a.m.-5 p.m...              7'           $5.00
              Club.
4..........  Rochester Yacht   Genesee River/     585-342-5511/  Mon-Sun, 7 a.m.-             9'             \1\
              Club.             Lake Ontario.      585-314-6460   10p.m..
5..........  City of           Genesee River--     716-428-7045  Jan-Dec, 24               4'-6'            0.00
              Rochester--Rive   Canal North to                    hours.
              r Street          490 Dam.
              Waterfront.
6..........  County of         Irondequoit Bay     716-428-5301  Apr-Oct, 7 a.m.-             8'           $5.00
              Monroe--Irondeq                                     7 p.m..
              uoit Bay NYS
              Marine.
7..........  Four C'S Marina   Oak Orchard         585-682-4224  6 a.m.-7 p.m...             10'           $5.00
              at Oak Orchard    Creek.
              Creek.
8..........  Eagle Creek       Oak Orchard         585-723-5708  8 a.m.-5 p.m...           8'-9'           $5.00
              Marina.           Creek.
9..........  Braddock Marina.  Braddock Bay...     585-227-1579  10 a.m.-4 p.m..              2'           $8.00
10.........  Newport Marina,   Irondequoit Bay     585-544-4950  Mar-Dec, 9 a.m.-             6'          $10.00
              Inc..                                               6 p.m..
11.........  Sutter's Marine,  Irondequoit Bay     716-217-8811  Apr-Nov, Mon-                7'           $5.00
              Inc..                                               Fri, 6:30 a.m.-
                                                                  5:00 p.m..
12.........  Pultneyville      Pultneyville...     315-524-2762  Apr-Sep, 24                  6'           $5.00
              Yacht Club.                                         hours.
13.........  Sodus Bay Yacht   Pultneyville...     315-483-9550  Apr-Sep, 24                  6'           $5.00
              Club.                                               hours.
14.........  Krenzer Marine,   Sodus Bay......     315-483-8808  Apr-Nov, 8 a.m.-          3'-6'            0.00
              Inc..                                               5 p.m..
15.........  Arney's Marina,   Sodus Bay......     315-483-9111  Apr-Oct, 9 a.m.-             7'           $5.00
              Inc..                                               5 p.m..
16.........  Anchor Resort     Little Sodus        315-947-5331  Apr-Sep, 6 a.m.-         8'-10'           $5.00
              and Marina.       Bay.                              6 p.m..
17.........  Bayside Marina..  Little Sodus        315-947-5773  Apr-Oct, 24                  8'           $5.00
                                Bay.                              hours.
18.........  Port of Oswego--  (Erie) Oneida       315-343-4503  Apr-Nov, 7 a.m.-            15'           $5.00
              International     Shore Park                        9 p.m..
              Marina West.      Terminal--Thre
                                e Rivers Port
                                Terminal.
19.........  Port of Oswego--  Three Rivers        315-343-4503  Apr-Nov, 7 a.m.-            18'           $5.00
              East Marina.      Point                             9 p.m..
                                Terminal--Lock
                                8 (Wright's
                                Landing).
20.........  Mexico Bay Co...  Mexico Bay--        315-963-3221  Daylight hours.  ..............           $0.00
                                Little Salmon
                                River.
21.........  Wigwam Marina...  North Pond.....     315-387-3001  12 p.m.-4 p.m..              8'           $0.00
22.........  Seber Shores      North Pond.....     315-387-5502  May-Nov, 9 a.m.-             8'           $5.00
              Marina.                                             5 p.m..
23.........  Harbor's End,     Henderson Bay       315-938-5425  Apr-Nov, 8 a.m.-           4.5'           $5.00
              Inc..             and Harbor.                       4:30 p.m..
24.........  Henchen Marina..  Henderson Bay       315-938-5313  Apr-Oct, 7 a.m.-             8'          $10.00
                                and Harbor.                       8 p.m..
25.........  Harbor View       Henderson Bay       315-938-5494  May-Oct, 8 a.m.- ..............           $0.00
              Marina, Inc..     and Harbor.                       5 p.m..

[[Page 61699]]

 
26.........  Grunerts Marina.  Black River Bay     315-646-2003  ...............  ..............           $0.00
27.........  Navy Point        Black River Bay     315-646-3364  May-Nov, 8 a.m.-            10'           $0.00
              Marina.                                             5 p.m..
28.........  Madison Barracks  Black River Bay     315-646-3374  May 15-Oct 15,              10'           $0.00
                                                                  8 a.m.-6 p.m..
29.........  Kitto's Marina..  Chaumont Bay...     315-788-2191  Apr-Oct, 8 a.m.-             7'           $0.00
                                                                  7 p.m..
30.........  Chaumont Club...  Black River Bay     315-649-5018  Apr 15 -Nov, 7          6.5'-7'           $0.00
                                                                  a.m.-5 p.m..
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Free--Members/$10.00--Guest.

    Based on the information above, EPA hereby proposes to make an 
affirmative determination that adequate facilities for the safe and 
sanitary removal and treatment of sewage from all vessels are available 
for the waters of the New York State portion of Lake Ontario. A 30-day 
period for public comment has been opened on this matter, and EPA 
invites any comments relevant to its proposed determination.

    Dated: September 27, 2011.
Judith A. Enck,
Regional Administrator, Region 2.
[FR Doc. 2011-25758 Filed 10-4-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P