[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 211 (Wednesday, November 2, 1994)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-27225]
[[Page Unknown]]
[Federal Register: November 2, 1994]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Office of the Secretary
43 CFR Part 11
RIN 1090-AA21
Natural Resource Damage Assessments: Type A Procedure for Great
Lakes Environments
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Interior.
ACTION: Proposed rule; extension of comment period.
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SUMMARY: On August 8, 1994, the Department of the Interior issued a
notice of proposed rulemaking (59 FR 40319) to revise the natural
resource damage assessment regulations. The natural resource damage
assessment regulations establish procedures for assessing damages for
injury to natural resources resulting from a discharge of oil into
navigable waters under the Clean Water Act, or a release of a hazardous
substance under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation,
and Liability Act. The August 8, 1994 proposed rule describes a
procedure for simplified assessments for relatively minor discharges or
releases in Great Lakes environments. The Department is extending the
period for comment on the proposed rule and soliciting comment on an
additional aspect of the type A procedure.
DATES: Comments will be accepted through February 6, 1995.
ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent in duplicate to the Office of
Environmental Policy and Compliance, Attn: NRDA Rule--GLE, Room 2340,
Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, DC 20240
(regular business hours 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Monday through Friday).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephen F. Specht at (202) 208-3301,
or [email protected] on Internet.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The natural resource damage assessment
regulations establish procedures that Federal, State, and Tribal
natural resource trustees may use to obtain compensation from liable
parties for natural resource injuries under the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, as amended (42
U.S.C. 9601 et seq.) and the Clean Water Act, as amended (33 U.S.C.
1251 et seq.). The regulations provide an administrative process for
conducting assessments as well as two types of technical procedures for
the actual determination of injuries and damages. ``Type A'' procedures
are standard procedures for simplified assessments requiring minimal
field observation in cases of minor discharges or releases in certain
environments. ``Type B'' procedures are site-specific procedures for
detailed assessments in other cases.
On August 8, 1994, the Department of the Interior published a
proposed rule to amend the regulations to include an additional type A
procedure for assessing natural resource damages in Great Lakes
environments. The proposed procedure incorporates a computer model
called the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Model for Great Lakes
Environments Version 1.31 (NRDAM/GLE).
The comment period on the August 8, 1994, proposed rule was
originally set to close on November 7, 1994. The Department has
received numerous requests for additional time to comment on the
proposed rule. The requesters have emphasized the large volume of
technical documentation accompanying the NRDAM/GLE, all of which is
subject to public review and comment. Some requesters are assembling
multidisciplinary teams to assist in the review of the model and
associated databases. The Department appreciates the level of technical
review that is underway and is therefore extending the comment period
by 90 days.
The Department also solicits comment on an additional aspect of the
proposed type A procedure for Great Lakes environments. The proposed
NRDAM/GLE is supported by a geographic information system (GIS) that
supplies geographically distributed information to the submodels. The
submodels divide the Great Lakes into a series of rectangular grids.
The proposed NRDAM/GLE assigns a habitat type to each cell within the
grids. Under the August 8, 1994 proposed rule, trustee officials would
not be allowed to modify the habitat designations in the final version
of the model if they wished to obtain a rebuttable presumption for
their assessments. The Department specifically requested commenters to
review the habitat designations and provide information about possible
revisions that should be made in the final version of the model. 59 FR
40330.
The Department remains committed to ensuring that the final version
of the NRDAM/GLE reflects the most accurate habitat information
available. However, the Department is now soliciting comment on whether
to revise the rule to allow trustee officials to modify the habitat
designations in the final version of the NRDAM/GLE and still obtain a
rebuttable presumption. Allowing trustee officials to modify the
habitat designations might enable fine-tuning of the model to better
reflect reality. On the other hand, type A procedures are designed to
simplify assessments, reduce fieldwork, and narrow the potential areas
of dispute. Providing an option to modify the habitat designations
could undermine these goals. Therefore, the Department solicits comment
on whether the final rule should allow trustee officials to modify the
habitat designations and, if so, under what conditions.
Dated: October 28, 1994.
Theresa Trujeque,
Acting Assistant Secretary--Policy, Management, and Budget.
[FR Doc. 94-27225 Filed 11-1-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-RG-P-M
