[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 144 (Thursday, July 26, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43808-43809]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-18293]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

RIN 0648-XC117


Supplement to the Draft Programmatic Restoration Plan and 
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement

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

ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and 
the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, 
Washington Department of Ecology and Washington Department of Fish and 
Wildlife, Suquamish Tribe, Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, U.S. Army Corps of 
Engineers, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are 
collectively referred to as the Trustee Council for this case. The 
Trustee Council is providing notice that the Supplement to the Draft 
Programmatic Restoration Plan and Programmatic Environmental Impact 
Statement (RP/PEIS) are being released for public comment. The 
Restoration Plan identifies a restoration approach to compensate for 
injuries to natural resources in the Lower Duwamish 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 in the 
Lower Duwamish River. This notice provides details on the availability 
of and opportunity to comment on the Supplement to the Draft 
Programmatic Restoration Plan and PEIS. Comments may be submitted in 
written form or verbally at a public meeting.

DATES: Written comments must be received by October 10, 2012.
    Public meetings to discuss and comment on the Draft RP/PEIS will be 
held as follows:
     Wednesday, August 22, 2012, 6:30-8:30 p.m., South Seattle 
Community College, 6737 Corson Ave. South, Seattle, WA, 98108-3450.
     Thursday, August 23, 2012, 10-11:30 a.m., South Seattle 
Community College, 6737 Corson Ave. South, Seattle, WA, 98108-3450.

ADDRESSES: Written comments on the Supplement to the Draft RP/PEIS 
should be sent to Rebecca Hoff, NOAA DARC NW., 7600 Sand Point Way NE., 
Seattle, WA 98115. Comments may be

[[Page 43809]]

submitted electronically to mailto:[email protected].
    The Supplement to the Draft Restoration Plan and PEIS are available 
for viewing at the following locations:

 Seattle Central Library, General Reference Desk, 1000 Fourth 
Ave., Seattle, WA 98104
 Delridge Library, General Reference Desk, 5423 Delridge Way 
SW., Seattle, WA 98106
 South Park Library, General Reference Desk, 8604 Eighth Ave. 
S. at South Cloverdale Street, Seattle, WA 98108

    A full electronic copy may be downloaded at: http://www.darrp.noaa.gov/northwest/lowerduwamishriver/index.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rebecca Hoff at (206) 526-6276 or 
email at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Comprehensive Environmental Response, 
Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), the Oil Pollution Act 
(OPA) of 1990, the Clean Water Act (CWA), the National Oil and 
Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (National Contingency 
Plan [NCP]), and other applicable federal and state laws and 
regulations provide a legal framework for addressing injuries to the 
nation's natural resources resulting from releases of hazardous 
substances and discharges of oil. The National Environmental Policy Act 
(NEPA) of 1960 requires an assessment of any federal action that may 
impact the environment, in this case development of a Restoration Plan.
    Hazardous substance releases into the Lower Duwamish River (LDR) 
have resulted in the contamination of the sediments and injuries to 
natural resources. The Elliott Bay Trustee Council (Trustees) is 
developing the Lower Duwamish River Natural Resource Damage Assessment 
(LDR/NRDA) to determine the extent of injuries to natural resources 
resulting from these releases. Natural resources include fish, 
shellfish, wildlife, sediments, water quality, and the services they 
provide. Trustees are also determining how to restore injured natural 
resources and lost resource services. The Restoration Plan, which will 
guide decision-making regarding the implementation of LDR/NRDA 
restoration activities, is also a Programmatic Environmental Impact 
Statement (PEIS). The PEIS analyzes the environmental impacts of the 
alternatives that may be employed by the Trustees to restore, replace, 
rehabilitate, and/or acquire the equivalent of the injured natural 
resources and their services. The Trustees evaluated three 
alternatives--the No-Action Alternative, which is required to be 
included in the analysis; the Species-Specific Restoration Alternative 
and the Integrated Habitat Restoration Alternative. The Trustees' 
preferred alternative is Integrated Habitat Restoration, which is a 
comprehensive plan based on restoration of key habitats that, together, 
will benefit the range of different resources injured by releases of 
hazardous substances in the LDR. In addition, the Trustees have 
included a detailed description of the methodology considered for use 
in a settlement based approach to injury assessment for the Lower 
Duwamish River.
    A previous draft RP/PEIS was made available for public review on 
May 22, 2009 (74 FR 25735, pages 25735-5736, EIS No. 20090171), with 
the comment period ending on July 28, 2009. In the current document, 
the Trustees added more detail about the injury assessment and 
restoration valuation methodology used in the LDR/NRDA, as requested in 
some of the comments received on the previous draft, and made some 
other more minor changes to address other comments.
    The Trustee Council has opened an Administrative Record (Record). 
The Record includes documents that the Trustees relied upon during the 
development of the Draft Restoration Plan and Draft PEIS. The Record is 
on file at the offices of NOAA. The Record is also available at: http://www.darrp.noaa.gov/northwest/lowerduwamishriver/admin.html

    Dated: July 20, 2012.
Brian T. Pawlak,
Acting Director, Office of Habitat Conservation, National Marine 
Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2012-18293 Filed 7-25-12; 8:45 am]
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