[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 14 (Friday, January 21, 2022)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 3257-3259]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-01011]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers

33 CFR Part 334

[COE-2021-0006]


Eagle River From Bravo Bridge to Eagle Bay in Knik Arm, 
Richardson Training Area on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; 
Restricted Area

AGENCY: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DoD.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is proposing to 
revise its regulations to establish a restricted area within the 
Richardson Training Area on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER), at 
Eagle River. The United States Army, Alaska (USARAK) G3/5/7 Training 
and Support Activity-Alaska (TSA-AK) requested establishment of a 
restricted area which would be located in the area of navigable waters 
extending from the span on Bravo Bridge across Eagle River to the mouth 
of Eagle River Knik Arm (Eagle River channel). Establishment of the 
restricted area would prevent all watercraft navigations and 
individuals from entering an active military range munitions impact 
area at all times, except for authorized vessels and individuals 
engaged in support of military training and management activities. This 
restricted area is necessary to avoid inadvertent entry into the impact 
area during live-fire weapons training, exposure to hazardous noise, 
and inadvertent encounters with unexploded ordnance.

DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before February 22, 
2022.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by docket number COE-
2021-0006, by any of the following methods:
    Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments.
    Email: [email protected]. Include the docket number, 
COE-2021-0006, in the subject line of the message.
    Mail: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Attn: CECW-CO-R (David B. 
Olson), 441 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20314-1000.
    Hand Delivery/Courier: Due to security requirements, we cannot 
receive comments by hand delivery or courier.

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    Instructions: Direct your comments to docket number COE-2021-0006. 
All comments received will be included in the public docket without 
change and may be made available on-line at http://www.regulations.gov, 
including any personal information provided, unless the commenter 
indicates that the comment includes information claimed to be 
Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose 
disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you 
consider to be CBI, or otherwise protected, through regulations.gov or 
email. The regulations.gov website is an anonymous access system, which 
means we will not know your identity or contact information unless you 
provide it in the body of your comment. If you send an email directly 
to the Corps without going through regulations.gov, your email address 
will be automatically captured and included as part of the comment that 
is placed in the public docket and made available on the internet. If 
you submit an electronic comment, we recommend that you include your 
name and other contact information in the body of your comment and with 
any compact disk you submit. If we cannot read your comment because of 
technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, we may 
not be able to consider your comment. Electronic comments should avoid 
the use of any special characters, any form of encryption, and be free 
of any defects or viruses.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to www.regulations.gov. All documents in the 
docket are listed. Although listed in the index, some information is 
not publicly available, such as CBI or other information whose 
disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as 
copyrighted material, is not placed on the internet and will be 
publicly available only in hard copy form.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. David Olson, Headquarters, U.S. 
Army Corps of Engineers, Operations and Regulatory Community of 
Practice, Washington, DC at 202-761-4922.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Pursuant to its authorities in Section 7 of the Rivers and Harbors 
Act of 1917 (40 Stat 266; 33 U.S.C. 1) and Chapter XIX of the Army 
Appropriations Act of 1919 (40 Stat 892; 33 U.S.C. 3) the Corps is 
proposing to amend the regulations at 33 CFR part 334 by establishing a 
restricted area in the Eagle River channel. The amendment to this 
regulation will allow the USARAK Commander to prevent all watercraft 
navigations and individuals from entering an active military range 
(Richardson Training Area, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson) munitions 
impact area at all times, except for authorized vessels and individuals 
engaged in support of military training and management activities. This 
restricted area will be in place as a precautionary measure to protect 
the public from inadvertently entering the impact area during live-fire 
weapons training, encountering hazardous noise in the vicinity of the 
impact area, and encountering unexploded ordnance.

Procedural Requirements

    a. Regulatory Planning and Review. This proposed rule is not a 
``significant regulatory action'' under Executive Order 12866 (58 FR 
51735, October 4, 1993) and it was not submitted to the Office of 
Management and Budget for review.
    b. Regulatory Flexibility Act, as Amended by the Small Business 
Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, 5 U.S.C. 601 et seq. This 
rule has been reviewed under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (Pub. L. 
96-354). The Regulatory Flexibility Act generally requires an agency to 
prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis of any rule subject to 
notice-and-comment rulemaking requirements under the Administrative 
Procedure Act or any other statute unless the agency certifies that the 
rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial 
number of small entities (i.e., small businesses and small 
governments).
    The Corps certifies under 5 U.S.C. 605(b) that this proposed rule 
would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of 
small entities. The restricted area is necessary to protect public 
safety. This restricted regulation would prevent all watercraft and 
individuals from entering an activity military range munitions impact 
area at all times, except for authorized vessels and individuals 
engaged in support of military training and management activities. The 
regulation would allow people, watercraft, or vessels to enter or 
remain in the waters in the restricted area as long as they are 
authorized by the enforcing agency. Small entities can utilize 
navigable waters outside of the restricted area. Unless information is 
obtained to the contrary during the comment period, the Corps expects 
that the economic impact of the proposed restricted area would have 
practically no impact on the public, any anticipated navigational 
hazard or interference with existing waterway traffic. After 
considering the economic impacts of this restricted area regulation on 
small entities, I certify that this proposed rule would not have a 
significant impact on a substantial number of small entities.
    c. Review Under the National Environmental Policy Act. Due to the 
administrative nature of this action and because there is no intended 
change in the use of the area, the Corps expects that this regulation, 
if adopted, will not have a significant impact on the quality of the 
human environment and, therefore, preparation of an environmental 
impact statement will not be required. An environmental assessment will 
be prepared after the public notice period is closed and all comments 
have been received and considered.
    d. Unfunded Mandates Act. This proposed rule does not contain a 
federal mandate that may result in expenditures of $100 million or more 
for tribal, state, and local governments, in the aggregate, or the 
private sector in any one year. Therefore, this proposed rule is not 
subject to the requirements of Sections 202 and 205 of the Unfunded 
Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). The proposed rule contains no regulatory 
requirements that might significantly or uniquely affect small 
governments. Therefore, the proposed rule is not subject to the 
requirements of Section 203 of UMRA.

List of Subjects in 33 CFR Part 334

    Danger zones, Navigation (water), Restricted areas, Waterways.

    For the reasons set forth in the summary above, the Corps proposes 
to amend 33 CFR part 334 as follows:

PART 334--DANGER ZONE AND RESTRICTED AREA REGULATIONS

0
1. The authority citation for part 334 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 40 Stat. 266 (33 U.S.C. 1) and 40 Stat. 892 (33 
U.S.C. 3).

0
2. Add Sec.  334.1305 to read as follows:


Sec.  334.1305   Eagle River from Bravo Bridge to its mouth at Eagle 
Bay in Knik Arm, Richardson Training Area on Joint Base Elmendorf-
Richardson, Alaska; restricted area.

    (a) Restricted area. The restricted area consists of navigable 
waters within an area defined as beginning a point on shore at latitude 
61[deg]19'40.1'' N, longitude 149[deg]44'20.336'' W; thence easterly to 
latitude 61[deg]19'41.59'' N, longitude 149[deg]44'6.825'' W; 3.06 
nautical miles southerly along the river to latitude 61[deg]18'40.13'' 
N, longitude

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149[deg]41'16.12'' W; thence southerly to latitude 61[deg]18'38.404'' 
N, to longitude 149[deg]41'14.73'' W. The datum for these coordinates 
is NAD-83.
    (b) The regulation. The restricted area is permanently closed for 
public use at all times. No persons, watercraft, or vessels shall 
enter, or remain, in the area except for those authorized by the 
enforcing agency.
    (c) Enforcement. This regulation will be enforced by the Commander, 
United States Army-Alaska.

Thomas P. Smith,
Chief, Operations and Regulatory Division.
[FR Doc. 2022-01011 Filed 1-20-22; 8:45 am]
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