[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 159 (Tuesday, August 18, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50018-50020]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-20401]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Coast Guard

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

[DOT-OST-2015-0105]


Nationwide Differential Global Positioning System (NDGPS)

AGENCY: DHS--Coast Guard, DOT--Office of the Assistant Secretary for 
Research and Technology (OST-R), and DOD--U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 
Office of Engineering and Construction

ACTION: Notice; request for public comments.

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SUMMARY: The Nationwide Differential Global Positioning System (NDGPS) 
service augments GPS by providing increased accuracy and integrity 
using land-based reference stations to transmit correction messages 
over radiobeacon frequencies. The service was implemented through 
agreements between multiple Federal agencies including the United 
States Coast Guard (USCG), Department of Transportation (DOT), and 
United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), as well as several 
states and scientific organizations, all cooperating to provide the 
combined national DGPS utility. However, a number of factors have 
contributed to declining use of NDGPS and, based on an assessment by 
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), DOT, and USACE, DHS, DOT, 
and USACE are proposing to shutdown and decommission 62 DGPS sites, 
which will leave 22 operational sites available to users in coastal 
areas. This notice seeks public comments on the shutdown and 
decommissioning of a total of 62 DGPS sites. Termination of the NDGPS 
broadcast at these sites is planned to occur on January 15, 2016.

DATES: Comments and related material must reach the Docket Management 
Facility on or before November 16, 2015.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by docket number DOT-OST-
2015-0105 using any one of the following methods:
    (1) Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
    (2) Fax: 202-493-2251.
    (3) Mail: Docket Management Facility (M-30), U.S. Department of 
Transportation, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New 
Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590-0001.
    (4) Hand delivery: Same as mail address above, between 9 a.m. and 5 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. The telephone 
number is 202-366-9329.
    To avoid duplication, please use only one of these four methods. 
See the ``Public Participation'' portion of the SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION section below for instructions on submitting comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions on this notice, 
contact CAPT Scott Smith, Coast Guard, telephone 202-372-1545 or email 
[email protected]; or James Arnold, OST-R, NDGPS Program Manager, 
telephone 202-366-8422 or

[[Page 50019]]

email [email protected]. If you have questions on viewing or submitting 
material to the docket, call Cheryl Collins, Docket Operations, 
telephone 202-366-9826.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Public Participation

    You may submit comments and related material regarding this 
proposed action. All comments received will be posted, without change, 
to http://www.regulations.gov and will include any personal information 
you have provided.
    Submitting comments: If you submit a comment, please include the 
docket number for this notice (DOT-OST-2015-0105) and provide a reason 
for each suggestion or recommendation. You may submit your comments and 
material online or by fax, mail or hand delivery, but please use only 
one of these means. We recommend that you include your name and a 
mailing address, an email address, or a telephone number in the body of 
your document so that we can contact you if we have questions regarding 
your submission.
    To submit your comment online, go to http://www.regulations.gov and 
use ``DOT-OST-2015-0105'' as your search term. Locate this notice in 
the results and click the corresponding ``Comment Now'' box to submit 
your comment. If you submit your comments by mail or hand delivery, 
submit them in an unbound format, no larger than 8\1/2\ by 11 inches, 
suitable for copying and electronic filing. If you submit comments by 
mail and would like to know that they reached the Facility, please 
enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard or envelope.
    We will consider all comments and material received during the 
comment period.
    Viewing the comments: To view comments, as well as documents 
mentioned in this notice as being available in the docket, go to http://www.regulations.gov and use ``DOT-OST-2015-0105'' as your search term. 
Use the filters on the left side of the page to highlight ``Public 
Submissions'' or other document types. If you do not have access to the 
Internet, you may view the docket online by visiting the Docket 
Management Facility in Room W12-140 on the ground floor of the 
Department of Transportation West Building, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., 
Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
except Federal holidays.
    Privacy Act: Anyone can search the electronic form of comments 
received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual 
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf 
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review a 
Privacy Act system of records notice regarding our public dockets in 
the January 17, 2008 issue of the Federal Register (73 FR 3316).

Background and Purpose

    The Coast Guard (USCG) began development of the Maritime 
Differential Global Positioning System (MDGPS) in the late 1980s. The 
GPS Standard Positioning Service (SPS) lacked sufficient accuracy and 
timely integrity monitoring, and soon later, was unable to meet 
requirements for coastal and Harbor Entrance and Approach (HEA) phases 
of navigation found in the International Association of Marine Aids to 
Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) R-121 and International 
Maritime Organization (IMO) A.953(23) recommendations, and to support 
the buoy positioning mission. The differential technique used by DGPS 
employs the installation of navigation equipment at a precisely known 
location. The equipment receives the GPS signal and compares the 
position solution from the received signal to its known location. The 
result of this comparison is then generated in the form of a correction 
message and sent to local users via radiobeacon broadcast to improve 
the accuracy and integrity of GPS-derived positions. In March of 1999, 
the MDGPS service was certified to meet the performance standards 
required for HEA navigation with its 49 geographically dispersed sites 
providing coverage to a number of ports and waterways in the contiguous 
United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. MDGPS provided improved 
horizontal positioning accuracy of better than 10 meters, integrity 
(signal accuracy and continuity of delivery checking) alarms for GPS, 
and MDGPS out-of-tolerance conditions within 10 seconds of detection.
    In 1997, the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies 
Appropriations Act of 1998 (Pub. L. 105-66, section 346 (111 Stat. 
1449)) authorized the implementation of the inland component of the 
system. As a result, 29 additional inland sites were added to the 
network. These sites, along with seven sites provided by the U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers, became known as Nationwide DGPS (NDGPS). The USCG 
was designated as lead for implementation, operation, and maintenance 
of the service. DOT is the NDGPS sponsor and chairs the multi-agency 
NDGPS Policy and Implementation Team (PIT) which directs the overall 
management of the NDGPS system. In cooperation with DOT, DHS, and 
USACE, many states and scientific organizations are also beneficiaries 
of the DGPS system, such as the National Weather Service's Forecast 
System Laboratory for short-term precipitation forecasts, and the 
University NAVSTAR Consortium for plate tectonic monitoring.
    However, a number of factors have contributed to the declining use 
of NDGPS. Contributing factors include: (1) USCG changes in policy to 
allow aids to navigation (ATON) to be positioned with a GPS receiver 
using Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM), which assesses 
the integrity of a GPS signal within the receiver; (2) increased use of 
Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) in commercial maritime 
applications, which uses ground-based reference stations and satellite 
communications to improve accuracy; (3) limited availability of 
consumer-grade NDGPS receivers; (4) no NDGPS mandatory carriage 
requirement on any vessel within U.S. territorial waters; (5) the May 
1, 2000 Presidential Directive discontinuing GPS Selective Availability 
http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/html/0053_2.html; (6) continuing 
GPS modernization; and (7) the DOT Federal Railroad Administration's 
determination \1\ that NDGPS is not a requirement for the successful 
implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC), which provides the 
railway system the capability to positively enforce movement 
authorities along railroad systems.
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    \1\ Letter from Federal Railroad Administration to USCG dated 
January 29, 2013 with subject ``Elimination of the Requirement for 
the NDGPS to support PTC mandated by the RSIA of 2008.''
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    In April 2013, DHS and DOT published a notice in the Federal 
Register \2\ announcing that DHS and DOT were in the process of 
analyzing the current and future user needs and requirements for NDGPS, 
and requesting public comment on:
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    \2\ 78 FR 22554 (Apr. 16, 2013). The Notice was published under 
docket numbers, USCG-2013-0054 and RITA-2013-0001.
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    (1) The commenter's usage of NDGPS for positioning, navigation, and 
timing;
    (2) The impact on NDGPS users if NDGPS were discontinued;
    (3) If NDGPS were discontinued, the possible alternatives for 
meeting users' positioning, navigation, and timing requirements; and
    (4) Potential alternative uses for the existing NDGPS 
infrastructure.
    The response to the 2013 notice was limited, but the responses 
received were well informed on the NDGPS system, its

[[Page 50020]]

use, and current and potential applications. While a limited number of 
responders found the broadcast of corrections to be beneficial, no 
respondents reported the discontinuance of DGPS broadcast to be 
detrimental or harmful. Ship pilots in particular noted that DGPS can 
be critical in confined waterways for precise shiphandling maneuvers.
    Several commenters noted that NDGPS is part of the Continuously 
Operating Reference Stations (CORS) \3\ network, which is used with GPS 
data to improve the precision of positioning, has value while others 
stated they had alternative networks available. The USCG cooperates 
with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National 
Geodetic Survey (NGS) to supplement their network of CORS reference 
stations with NDGPS sites. Today, DGPS sites account for approximately 
5% of the CORS network, which is comprised of more than 1,900 geodetic-
grade GPS receivers. CORS is widely used by Federal, state, and non-
government entities throughout the United States to provide data for 3-
dimensional positioning for use in land surveys, Geographic Information 
Systems (GIS), Land Information Systems (LIS), and environmental 
management. Additionally, raw GPS data is provided to NOAA's National 
Weather Service from all DGPS sites for weather analysis and 
prediction.
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    \3\ CORS support surveying, mapping, and related disciplines 
that have accuracy requirements which require the use of a relative 
positioning technique. CORS automatically collect and record the GPS 
data at known locations in support of these activities.
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    A few respondents noted the broadcast signals provide non-line-of-
sight benefits. Respondents suggested alternatives to NDGPS as 
currently implemented, such as using existing NDGPS stations to 
rebroadcast WAAS corrections, adding other data to the broadcast, 
integrating the broadcast with positioning technologies, or simply 
streaming data from the reference stations.
    After considering the comments and based on an assessment by DHS, 
DOT, and USACE, we propose to shutdown and decommission 62 sites, which 
is planned to occur on January 15, 2016, which will leave 22 
operational sites available to users in those waterway where pilots 
generally operate, i.e., where marine traffic is most frequent and the 
need for precise marine navigation is greatest. However, it is possible 
for the reference stations to be transitioned to other Federal, state, 
and/or local agencies. Questions about potential transition of specific 
reference stations should be directed to the individual(s) referenced 
in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section above.
    The specific sites to be disestablished are:
    Maritime Sites:

 Appleton, WA
 Biorka, AK
 Bobo, MS
 Brunswick, ME
 Cape Hinchinbrook, AK
 Cheboygan, MI
 Cold Bay, AK
 Driver, VA
 Eglin, FL
 Gustavus, AK
 Isabela, PR
 Key West, FL
 Kodiak, AK
 Kokole Point, HI
 Level Island, AK
 Lompoc, CA
 Mequon, MI
 New Bern, NC
 Penobscot, ME
 Pigeon Point, CA
 Robinson Pt, WA
 Saginaw, MI
 Sandy Hook, NJ
 Sturgeon Bay, WI
 Upper Keweenaw, MI
 Wisconsin Point, WI
 Youngstown, NY

    Inland Sites:

 Albuquerque, NM
 Austin, NV
 Bakersfield, CA
 Billings, MT
 Chico, CA
 Clark, SD
 Dandridge, TN
 Essex, CA
 Flagstaff, AZ
 Greensboro, NC
 Hackleburg, AL
 Hagerstown, MD
 Hartsville, TN
 Hawk Run, PA
 Hudson Falls, NY
 Klamath Falls, OR
 Macon, GA
 Medora, ND
 Myton, UT
 Pine River, MN
 Polson, MT
 Pueblo, CO
 Savannah, GA
 Seneca, OR
 Spokane, WA
 St. Marys, WV
 Summerfield, TX
 Topeka, KS
 Whitney, NE

    Inland Sites operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:

 Louisville, KY
 Millers Ferry, AL
 Rock Island, IA
 Sallisaw, OK
 St. Louis, MO
 St. Paul (Alma), MN

    For more information on the NDGPS, visit the USCG's Web site at 
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=dgpsMain. Additional information 
on GPS, NDGPS, and other GPS augmentation systems is available in the 
2014 Federal Radionavigation Plan, published by the Department of 
Defense, DHS, and DOT, which is also available at the USCG's Web site 
at http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=pubsMain.

Request for Comments

    This notice seeks public comments on the shutdown and 
decommissioning of a total of 62 DGPS sites, which would leave 22 
operational sites available to users in coastal areas on January 15, 
2016.
    Graphics showing the predicted coverage before and after the 
proposed sites are decommissioned, and a list of the sites, is 
available at the USCG's NDGPS General Information Web site at: http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=dgpsMain.

Authority

    This notice is issued under the authority of 5 U.S.C. 552(a), 14 
U.S.C. 81, and 49 U.S.C. 301 (Pub. L. 105-66, section 346).

    Issued in Washington, DC, on August 10, 2015.
 Gary Rasicot,
Director of Marine Transportation Systems, U.S. Coast Guard.
 Gregory D. Winfree,
Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology, U.S. Department of 
Transportation.
 Robert A. Bank,
Chief, Civil Works Branch of Engineering and Construction, U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers.
[FR Doc. 2015-20401 Filed 8-17-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-9X-P