[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 32 (Tuesday, February 18, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9264-9266]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-03332]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[FWS-R3-EC-2013-N297; FVHC98120300940-XXX-FF03E16000]


Notice of Intent To Prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact 
Statement for the Riverwide Restoration Plan; Allied Paper, Inc./
Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund Site

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement; 
request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are providing this notice 
of intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for Kalamazoo 
River restoration pursuant to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 
regulations. USFWS, NOAA, and the State of Michigan (collectively 
referred to as the ``Trustees'') are also providing notice of their 
efforts to plan restoration projects authorized by the Comprehensive 
Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) to 
compensate for injuries to natural resources from polychlorinated 
biphenyls (PCBs) released at and from the Allied Paper, Inc./Portage 
Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund Site (Superfund Site). The Trustees 
will prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) to 
identify and evaluate the environmental impacts associated with 
restoration actions that may be implemented to compensate for injuries 
to natural resources and associated services. The public is invited to 
provide comments to assist the Trustees in the development of a 
restoration plan (RP). This notice explains the scoping process the 
Trustees will use to gather input from the public.

DATES: Written comments must be received by March 20, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Written comments for the Trustees to consider should be sent 
to Lisa Williams, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, East Lansing Field 
Office, 2651 Coolidge Road East Lansing, MI 48823. Comments may also be 
submitted electronically to [email protected], with ``Kalamazoo 
River RP/PEIS Scoping Comment'' in the subject line.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lisa Williams, USFWS, by email at 
[email protected] or by phone at (517) 351-8324, or Terry Heatlie, 
NOAA Restoration Center, by email at [email protected] or by phone 
at (734) 741-2211.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Comprehensive Environmental 
Response, Compensation and Liability Act (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. CERCLA's Natural Resource Damage 
Assessment (NRDA) regulations (43 CFR11) prescribe the process of 
assessing the nature and extent of the resulting injury, destruction, 
or loss of natural resources and the services they provide. Carrying 
out of the NRDA process also includes 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 act on behalf of the public as Trustees for affected natural 
resources. Under CERCLA, these agencies and tribes are authorized to 
assess natural resource injuries and to seek compensation, referred to 
as damages, from responsible parties, including the costs of performing 
the damage assessment. The Trustees are required to use recovered 
damages for the following purposes only: to restore, replace, or 
acquire the equivalent of the injured or lost resources and services.
    The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are providing this notice of 
intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for Kalamazoo River 
restoration pursuant to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 
regulations. The NEPA process consists of a set of fundamental 
objectives that include interagency coordination and cooperation, and 
public participation in the planning and development of projects. NEPA 
requires Federal agencies to conduct environmental reviews of proposed 
actions to consider the potential impacts on the environment. NOAA, 
USFWS, and the State of Michigan (collectively referred to as the 
``Trustees'') are also providing notice of their efforts to plan 
restoration projects to compensate for injuries to natural resources 
from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) released at and from the Allied 
Paper, Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund Site (Superfund 
Site). The Trustees seek

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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 evaluate the environmental impacts associated 
with restoration actions that may be implemented to compensate for 
injuries to natural resources and associated services. The public is 
invited to provide comments to assist the Trustees in the development 
of a restoration plan (RP). This notice explains the scoping process 
the Trustees will use to gather input from the public.
    The Trustees have engaged the public directly in several ways since 
initiating the Kalamazoo River Natural Resource Damage Assessment 
(NRDA) with the release of a Preassessment Screen and a Stage I 
Assessment Plan in 2000, and have also gathered scoping information 
from other planning processes in which the public has been engaged. 
Based on these previous interactions, the Trustees do not plan to hold 
additional scoping meetings during development of the draft RP/PEIS. As 
part of the Stage I NRDA process, the Trustees met with the public, 
solicited restoration project ideas, spoke directly with individuals 
and organizations like the Kalamazoo River Protection Association and 
the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council, provided findings at a public 
meeting, and made the report available for public review and comment 
(MDEQ et al. 2005; see Stage I Assessment Report for the Kalamazoo 
River Environment, Volume 2, Chapter 4, available at http://www.fws.gov/midwest/es/ec/nrda/KalamazooRiver). The Stage I Assessment 
Report provides an overview of restoration planning, criteria for 
evaluating potential restoration alternatives, and examples of 
potential restoration actions for the Kalamazoo River Environment. The 
Draft RP/PEIS will incorporate and build upon existing restoration 
planning information developed in the Stage I Assessment Report. In 
addition, the Trustees have participated in numerous public meetings 
hosted by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency related to the Allied Paper, Inc./
Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund Site. Most recently, the 
Trustees released a Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment (RP/
EA) for Portage Creek and Operable Unit 1 (OU1), which is available on 
the USFWS Web site at: http://www.fws.gov/midwest/es/ec/nrda/KalamazooRiver. and on the NOAA Web site at: http://www.darrp.noaa.gov/greatlakes/kalamazoo/pdf/2013.08.OU1.RPEA_fnl_sm.pdf.
    The Trustees solicited public comment on the Draft OU1 RP/EA during 
the spring of 2012 and met with the public on May 1, 2012. In doing so, 
the Trustees received updated input from individuals, the Kalamazoo 
River Watershed Council, Calhoun Conservation District, Kalamazoo 
Nature Center, and the Kalamazoo River Cleanup Coalition. These 
interactions have informed the scope of restoration planning and have 
helped identify significant issues to be evaluated in the RP/PEIS.
    Industrial activities in the Kalamazoo area have released PCBs into 
the environment. Recycling of carbonless copy paper at several area 
paper mills was the primary source of PCB release. Waste from the 
recycling of such paper conducted at Kalamazoo-area paper mills also 
contained PCBs, and the waste was disposed of by several methods that 
resulted in releases of PCBs into the environment. These PCBs have 
contaminated sediments, the water column, and biota in and adjacent to 
downstream sections of Portage Creek, the Kalamazoo River, and Lake 
Michigan.
    Based on the risks that PCBs pose to the environment and to human 
health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) listed the 
Allied Paper, Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River Superfund Site on the 
National Priorities List on August 30, 1990. PCBs are listed as 
hazardous substances under CERCLA. EPA and the Michigan Department of 
Environmental Quality currently describe the Site being addressed by 
the Superfund remedial investigation as including: (1) five disposal 
areas and six paper mill properties; (2) a 3-mile stretch of Portage 
Creek from Cork Street in the City of Kalamazoo to where the creek 
meets the Kalamazoo River; and (3) an approximately 80-mile stretch of 
the Kalamazoo River, from Morrow Dam to Lake Michigan, with adjacent 
floodplains, wetlands, and in-stream sediments.
    As defined in the Stage 1 Assessment Report (MDEQ et al. 2005; 
available at http://www.fws.gov/midwest/es/ec/nrda/KalamazooRiver), the 
Trustees are using the term Kalamazoo River Environment (KRE) to 
represent the entire natural resource damage assessment area. The KRE 
encompasses the area being addressed by the Superfund remedial 
investigations for the site's operable units, along with any area where 
hazardous substances released at or from the Superfund site have come 
to be located, and areas where natural resources or the services they 
provide may have been affected by the Site-related hazardous substances 
releases (MDEQ et al. 2005).
    As restoration planning proceeds, the Trustees expect to have 
opportunities to settle natural resource damage claims with willing 
parties. The RP/PEIS will provide an ecological framework, with public 
input, to maximize the benefits of specific restoration projects to the 
affected resources in the KRE that might be included in or funded by 
settlements. The RP/PEIS will provide criteria and guidance for 
Trustees to use in selecting feasible restoration projects. In 
developing the document, the Trustees will also incorporate public 
input in the development and evaluation of restoration alternatives, 
including general categories of potential restoration actions as well 
as a few specific potential projects.
    NEPA, 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq., and the Council on Environmental 
Quality regulations implementing NEPA under 40 CFR 1500 et seq., apply 
to restoration actions by Federal trustees. The purpose of the scoping 
process is to identify the concerns of the affected public, Federal 
agencies, States, and Indian tribes; involve the public early in the 
decision making process; facilitate an efficient EA/EIS 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.
    In compliance with 40 CFR 1505 et seq., the Trustees will include 
in the NRDA Administrative Record (Record) documents that the Trustees 
rely upon during the development of the RP and PEIS. The hard copy 
Record is on file at MDEQ (contact Judith Alfano at (517) 373-7402 or 
[email protected]), and selected documents from the Record are also 
accessible at the following Web site: http://www.fws.gov/midwest/es/ec/nrda/KalamazooRiver. A draft RP/PEIS document is anticipated to be 
released for public comment by Fall 2014. Specific dates and times for 
events will be publicized when scheduled.

Public Comments

    Please send comments in reference to: (a) developing the draft RP/
PEIS; (b) suggestions for additional restoration actions beyond those 
described in the 2005 Stage I Assessment Report and the Portage Creek/
OU1 RP/EA; and (c) considerations for potential impacts of

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those actions to the human environment. Please see the ADDRESSES 
section for additional submission information.
    Before including your address, phone number, email address, or 
other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be 
aware that your entire comment--including your personal identifying 
information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you can 
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying 
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be 
able to do so.

Thomas O. Melius,
Regional Director, Midwest Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. 2014-03332 Filed 2-14-14; 8:45 am]
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