[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 5 (Friday, January 7, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1165-1166]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-334]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
Notice of Availability, Oil Spill Restoration Plan and
Environmental Assessment
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: The Fish and Wildlife Service, on behalf of the Department of
the Interior, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(Administration), the State of Washington, and the Makah Tribe,
announces the release for public review of a Revised Draft Restoration
Plan and Environmental Assessment for the Tenyo Maru Oil Spill (Plan/
Assessment). The Plan/Assessment covers the Natural Resource Trustees'
(Trustees) proposal to restore natural resources injured as a result of
the 1991 Tenyo Maru fishing vessel oil spill.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before February 7,
2000.
ADDRESSES: Requests for copies of the Plan/Assessment may be made to:
Fish and Wildlife Service, 510 Desmond Drive SE, Suite 102, Lacey,
Washington 98503, Attn: Cindy M. Chaffee. The Plan/Assessment is also
available for download at http://www.r1.fws.gov. and http://
www.darcnw.noaa.gov/tenyo.htm. Written comments regarding the Plan/
Assessment should be sent to the same mailing address as requests for
copies of the Plan/Assessment.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cindy M. Chaffee, Fish and Wildlife
Service, 510 Desmond Drive SE, Suite 102, Lacey, Washington 98503.
Interested parties may also call (360) 753-4324.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On July 22, 1991, a Japanese fishing vessel
(Tenyo Maru) and a Chinese freighter (Tuo Hai) collided about 20 miles
northwest of Neah Bay, Washington, spilling at least 100,000 gallons of
oil. Beaches were fouled with oil from Vancouver Island, British
Columbia to northern Oregon. While impacts were scattered along the
entire Washington State shoreline and the northern beaches of Oregon,
the heaviest oiling occurred along the Makah Indian Reservation and the
Olympic National Park shoreline. Seabirds, and to a lesser extent, kelp
habitats, were demonstrated to have been injured by the spill. The
trustees documented that common murres (Uria aalge) and federally
threatened marbled murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) were killed, as
well as rhinoceros auklets (Cerorhinca moncerata), tufted puffins
(Fratercula cirrhata), Cassin's auklets (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) and
pigeon guillemots (Cepphus columba). Oil was observed in many of the
giant kelp (Macrocystis) and bull kelp (Nereocystis) dominated kelp
beds from Cape Alava north to Tatoosh Island and from Tatoosh Island
east to Waadah Island.
Claims for natural resource damages were settled by consent decree
under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (Act), 33 U.S.C. 2701 et seq..
Under the consent decree, the defendants agreed to pay approximately
$5.2 million to the natural resource trustees to compensate the public
for the injury, destruction, and loss of natural resources resulting
from the spill.
On February 10, 1999, the Trustees published a Notice of
Availability for a draft Plan/Assessment. The Trustees received
numerous comments on this draft Plan/Assessment. In response to those
comments, the Trustees have made several changes to the Plan/
Assessment. These changes include: (1) The addition of funding for an
emergency towing vessel stationed at the entrance to the Strait of Juan
de Fuca; (2) an option to consider a project involving restoration of
tufted puffins; and (3) elimination of the Seabird By-Catch Reduction
in Coastal Net Fisheries Project. In order to help focus public review,
the revised Plan/Assessment includes the highlighting of additional
language and strike-out lines where language has been removed from the
draft Plan/Assessment published last February.
The Plan/Assessment is presented to the public by the Trustees
responsible for restoration implementation under the consent decree and
is consistent with the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Regulations
found at 15 CFR, Part 990. The Plan/Assessment describes the affected
environment and illustrates potential restoration alternatives to
restore, rehabilitate, replace, or acquire the equivalent of natural
resources injured in the Tenyo Maru oil spill and their environmental
consequences.
The preferred restoration alternative selected by the Trustees is
an integrative restoration approach that restores populations of
injured resources, provides quality habitat, and allows natural
recovery. Proposed restoration efforts will include the combination of
protection and enhancement activities that have the greatest potential
to restore the injured natural resources, with particular emphasis on
seabirds. The Plan/Assessment proposes to restore injured resources by:
(1) Restoring common murre or potentially, tufted puffin colonies
within the Copalis National Wildlife Refuge; (2) contributing to an
oiled wildlife rehabilitation center; (3) educating the public on the
negative impacts caused by human disturbance of nesting seabird
colonies; (4) protecting injured natural resources from further impacts
of oil spills; (5) protecting marbled murrelet habitat; and (6)
reducing siltation in rivers to aid salmon recovery.
[[Page 1166]]
Interested members of the public are invited to review and comment
on the Plan/Assessment. Copies of the plan are available for review at
the Fish and Wildlife Service's Western Washington Office in Lacey,
Washington (510 Desmond Drive SE, Suite 102); the Olympic Coast
National Marine Sanctuary in Port Angeles, Washington (Federal
Building, 138 West 1st Street, Suite 7) and; the Makah Tribe at Neah
Bay, Washington (Old Air Force Building #15). Additionally the Plan/
Assessment will be available for review at the Fish and Wildlife
Service's web site http://www.r1.fws.gov, at Administration's web site
http://www.darcnw.noaa.gov/tenyo.htm, and at public libraries in
Clallam, Jefferson, Grays Harbor, and Pacific Counties.
Written comments will be considered and addressed in the final
Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment at the conclusion of the
restoration planning process.
Dated: January 3, 2000.
Thomas Dwyer,
Acting Regional Director, Region 1, Portland, Oregon.
[FR Doc. 00-334 Filed 1-6-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-55-P
