[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 191 (Thursday, October 1, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61935-61936]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-21664]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


Review of Nomination for Chumash Heritage National Marine 
Sanctuary

AGENCY: Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS), National Ocean 
Service (NOS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 
Department of Commerce (DOC).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In May 2020, the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) 
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) requested 
written comments to facilitate ONMS review of the nomination for 
Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary (CHNMS). NOAA requested 
relevant information as it pertains to the 11 national significance 
criteria and management considerations that NOAA applied to evaluate 
the CHNMS nomination for inclusion in the national inventory of areas 
that NOAA may be considered for future designation as a national marine 
sanctuary. NOAA has synthesized the information gathered through the 
public process, completed an internal analysis, and the ONMS Director 
has determined that the CHNMS nomination will remain in the inventory 
until at least October 5, 2025.

DATES: This determination is effective on October 5, 2020.

ADDRESSES: William Douros Regional Director, ONMS West Coast Region, 99 
Pacific Street, Bldg. 100F, Monterey, CA

[[Page 61936]]

93940, or at [email protected], or 831-647-6452.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William Douros Regional Director, ONMS 
West Coast Region, 99 Pacific Street, Bldg. 100F, Monterey, CA 93940, 
or at [email protected], or 831-647-6452.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background Information

    In 2014, NOAA issued a final rule establishing the sanctuary 
nomination process (SNP), a process by which communities may submit 
nominations of areas of the marine and Great Lakes environment for NOAA 
to consider for designation as a national marine sanctuary (79 FR 
33851). The final rule establishing the SNP included a five year limit 
on any nomination added to the inventory that NOAA does not advance for 
designation. The nomination for CHNMS was accepted to the national 
inventory on October 5, 2015, and was scheduled to expire in October 
2020.
    In November 2019, NOAA issued a notice (84 FR 61546) to clarify 
procedures for evaluating and updating a nomination as it approaches 
the five-year mark. The clarified procedure is intended to ensure the 
inventory contains nominations that remain relevant and responsive to 
the 11 SNP national significance criteria and management considerations 
(``SNP Criteria''). The 11 SNP Criteria can be found at https://nominate.noaa.gov. The process to update a nomination about to expire 
at the five-year mark includes the following steps:
    1. ONMS notifies the nominating party at about the four and a half-
year mark to give the nominating party an opportunity to provide 
updates of the nominated area's relevance to the SNP Criteria.
    2. ONMS staff work with partners and the public to gather 
information on the nomination's relevance to the SNP Criteria.
    3. ONMS staff review information received from the original 
nominating party, partners, the public and other relevant sources 
against the SNP Criteria to assess if the nomination is still accurate 
and relevant.
    4. ONMS staff produce a brief synopsis report to the ONMS Director, 
presenting an analysis of information that has been collected, and a 
recommendation regarding maintaining the nomination in the inventory, 
or removing it once the five-year anniversary is reached.
    On May 4, 2020, NOAA issued a request for public comments on this 
nomination (85 FR 26443). NOAA requested relevant information 
pertaining to the 11 SNP Criteria that NOAA applied to evaluate the 
CHNMS nomination for inclusion in the national inventory of areas that 
NOAA may consider for future designation as a national marine 
sanctuary. NOAA also hosted a virtual public meeting on May 27, 2020. A 
total of 14,358 public comments were received during this public 
process. Comments can be found at regulations.gov (search for document 
number NOAA-NOS-2020-0063-0001). In analyzing these comments, 
particular attention was given to new scientific information about the 
national significance of natural and cultural resources, as well as 
increases or decreases in the threats to resources originally proposed 
for protection, and changes to the management framework of the area. 
NOAA also assessed the level of community-based support for the 
nomination from a broad range of interests.
    NOAA reviewed information provided regarding the nomination's merit 
for remaining on the inventory after five years, and has determined 
that new information shows: There are still significant threats to the 
area; it is still an area of national significance, and there is still 
broad community support for the nomination remaining on the inventory 
of possible designations, among other criteria that the nomination 
still continues to meet. Therefore, the ONMS Director has determined 
the nomination for the CHNMS should remain on the inventory. NOAA is 
not proposing to designate CHNMS or any other any new national marine 
sanctuary with this action. This notice serves to inform the public of 
this decision to extend the nomination on the inventory.

I. Classification

A. National Environmental Policy Act

    NOAA determined that because this action is a notice of an 
administrative nature, and does not designate any new national marine 
sanctuaries, it meets the definition in Appendix E of the NOAA NEPA 
Companion Manual under categorical exclusion reference number G7 
``Preparation of policy directives, rules, regulations, and guidelines 
of an administrative, financial, legal, technical, or procedural 
nature, or for which the environmental effects are too broad, 
speculative or conjectural to lend themselves to meaningful analysis 
and will be subject later to the NEPA process, either collectively or 
on a case-by-case basis.'' In considering the list of extraordinary 
circumstances, NOAA determined that none would be triggered by this 
action. Therefore, NOAA determined that this action would not result in 
significant effects to the human environment and is categorically 
excluded from the need for further review under NEPA. Should NOAA 
decide to designate a national marine sanctuary, each national marine 
sanctuary designation will be subject to case-by-case analysis as 
required under NEPA and section 304(a)(2)(A) of the NMSA. This NEPA 
determination was prepared using the 2020 CEQ NEPA Regulations. The 
effective date of the 2020 CEQ NEPA Regulations was September 14, 2020, 
and reviews begun after this date are required to apply the 2020 
regulations unless there is a clear and fundamental conflict with an 
applicable statute. 85 FR at 43372-73 (Sec. Sec.  1506.13, 1507.3(a)).

B. Paperwork Reduction Act

    Notwithstanding any other provisions of the law, no person is 
required to respond to, nor shall any person be subject to a penalty 
for failure to comply with a collection of information subject to the 
requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), 44 U.S.C. 3501 et 
seq., unless that collection of information displays a currently valid 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. Nominations for 
national marine sanctuaries discussed in this notice involve a 
collection-of-information requirement subject to the requirements of 
the PRA. OMB has approved this collection-of-information requirement 
under OMB control number 0648-0682.

(Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1431 et seq.)

John Armor,
Director, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, National Ocean 
Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
[FR Doc. 2020-21664 Filed 9-30-20; 8:45 am]
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