[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 19 (Thursday, January 29, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4883-4884]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-01744]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

RIN 0648-XD546


Notice of Availability of the Draft NOAA Restoration Center 
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement

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

ACTION: Notice of Availability of a Draft Programmatic Environmental 
Impact Statement; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS announces the availability of the NOAA Restoration Center 
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. Publication of this notice 
begins the public comment period for this Draft Programmatic 
Environmental Impact Statement (DPEIS). The purpose of the DPEIS is to 
evaluate, in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act 
(NEPA), the potential direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of 
implementing the alternative programmatic approaches to coastal habitat 
restoration within the NOAA Restoration Center and other NOAA programs 
implementing similar habitat restoration activities.

DATES: Interested parties should provide written comments by March 20, 
2015.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties that wish to send comments may send an 
email to [email protected]. Interested parties that wish to send 
comments through regular mail may use the following mailing address: 
NOAA Restoration Center (F/HC3), ATTN: Restoration DPEIS Comments, 1315 
East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910. The NOAA Restoration Center 
Web site that contains information and updates relevant to this DPEIS 
can be found at: http://www.restoration.noaa.gov/environmentalcompliance.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Melanie Gange at 301-427-8664 or via 
the following email address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    In the DPEIS, NOAA proposes to fund or otherwise implement coastal 
habitat restoration activities through its existing programmatic 
framework and related procedures. NOAA contains multiple programs that 
carry out habitat restoration projects throughout the coastal United 
States, which includes the Great Lakes and territories. Many of these 
programs are housed within the National Marine Fisheries Service, 
Office of Habitat Conservation's Restoration Center (NOAA RC). Projects 
implemented by NOAA vary in terms of their size, complexity, geographic 
location and NOAA involvement, and often benefit a wide range of 
habitat types and affect a number of different species. Fish passage, 
hydrologic/tidal reconnection, shellfish restoration, coral recovery, 
salt marsh and barrier island restoration, erosion prevention, debris 
removal, and invasive species removal, are all examples of project 
types implemented by NOAA through its various programs.
    The DPEIS includes a suite of restoration approaches that NOAA 
proposes will most effectively conserve and restore the coastal and 
marine resources under NOAA trusteeship. This analysis builds upon and 
replaces the Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) and 
Supplemental (SPEA) published in 2002 and 2006, respectively. The 
analyses in the PEA and SPEA, where relevant, along with NOAA's 
analyses of individual project impacts, have informed the updated 
analyses in this DPEIS. NOAA believes that this DPEIS will promote an 
efficient NEPA compliance process for future NOAA-supported habitat 
restoration activities, through various programs.
    Alternatives: This document provides a programmatic-level 
environmental analysis to support NOAA's proposal to continue habitat 
restoration activities involving trust resources throughout the coastal 
United States. The DPEIS takes a broad look at issues and programmatic-
level alternatives (compared to a document for a specific project or 
action) and provides guidance for future restoration activities to be 
carried out by NOAA. In addition to

[[Page 4884]]

providing a programmatic analysis, NOAA intends to use this document to 
approve future site-specific actions, including grant actions, so long 
as the activity being proposed is within the range of alternatives and 
scope of potential environmental consequences considered within this 
NEPA analysis. Any future site-specific restoration activities proposed 
by NOAA that are not within the scope of alternatives or environmental 
consequences considered in this PEIS will require additional analysis 
under NEPA.
    NOAA has determined that two alternatives are reasonable and meet 
the purpose and need. These are Alternative 1--Current Management and 
Alternative 2--Technical Assistance.
    ``Current Management,'' the No Action Alternative, is a 
comprehensive restoration approach that includes activities such as 
technical assistance, on-the-ground riverine and coastal habitat 
restoration activities, and land and water acquisition activities. For 
programmatic analyses of on-going programs, where program activities 
are being analyzed as opposed to a single specific project action, the 
No Action Alternative can be interpreted as ``no change from current 
management'' (CEQ 40 Questions, 46 FR 18026 (March 23, 1981). Riverine 
and coastal habitat restoration activities in this alternative include 
but are not limited to, fish passage projects; channel, bank and 
floodplain restoration; buffer area and watershed revegetation; 
saltmarsh restoration; oyster restoration; marine debris removal; 
submerged aquatic vegetation restoration; invasive species removal; and 
coral restoration.
    ``Technical Assistance'' is an alternative approach that includes 
no on-the-ground restoration, and is limited to activities including 
project planning, modeling, feasibility studies, engineering and design 
studies, and permitting activities.
    Impacts Analysis: This DPEIS presents NOAA's restoration activities 
and their environmental consequences grouped into three categories of 
restoration activities: Technical assistance; on-the-ground riverine 
and coastal habitat restoration activities; and land and water 
acquisition activities. All three of these restoration categories 
comprise the ``Current Management'' alternative. Technical assistance 
activities are typically minimally-intrusive, relatively low-cost and 
do not require extensive on-the-ground activities to be implemented. 
On-the-ground restoration activities include all of the physical 
riverine and coastal restoration that the NOAA RC supports. Land and 
water acquisition activities involve transactions of ownership, usage 
rights, or access. This alternative is anticipated to have typically 
long-term beneficial and short-term adverse impacts on the affected 
environment of various magnitudes and intensities, which are described 
in the DPEIS.
    The ``Technical Assistance'' alternative relies heavily, if not 
exclusively, on external sources of funding to conduct on-the-ground 
implementation. NOAA resources would only be focused on advisory or 
technical assistance aspects of the restoration work. The technical 
assistance activities would generally cause mostly indirect, long-term 
beneficial impacts, with short-term adverse impacts for more intrusive 
monitoring and sampling techniques.
    Request for Comment: The publication date of this notice 
constitutes the start of the comment period under NEPA for the PEIS. 
NOAA encourages all parties with an interest in or who are affected by 
habitat restoration activities to provide suggestions and comments. 
Comments are specifically requested regarding the alternatives, scope 
of analysis, assessment of impacts, and the process described in 
Appendix A for determining which future projects are covered by this 
analysis. For more detailed background information, including program 
descriptions, restoration project types, and the previously mentioned 
environmental assessment documents, please visit the NOAA Restoration 
Center Web site. Interested parties should provide written comments by 
March 20, 2015.

    Authority: 16 U.S.C. 661; 16 U.S.C. 1891a.

    Dated: January 26, 2015.
Frederick C. Sutter,
Director, Office of Habitat Conservation, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 2015-01744 Filed 1-28-15; 8:45 am]
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