E9-23386. Standards for Living Organisms in Ships' Ballast Water Discharged in U.S. Waters

AGENCY:

Coast Guard, DHS.

ACTION:

Notice of public meetings.

SUMMARY:

This notice provides the times and locations of the first four of six public meetings which will be held by the Coast Guard (USCG) regarding the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) entitled “Standards for Living Organisms in Ships' Ballast Water Discharged in U.S. Waters” that published in the Federal Register on Friday, August 28, 2009.

DATES:

Public meetings will be held in the Seattle, WA (September 28, 2009), New Orleans, LA (September 30, 2009), Chicago, IL (October 2, 2009), Washington, DC (October 8, 2009), Oakland, CA (October 27, 2009), and New York, NY (October 29, 2009) areas to provide opportunities for oral comments. The comment period for the NPRM closes on November 27, 2009. All comments and related material submitted after a meeting must either be submitted to our online docket via http://www.regulations.gov on or before November 27, 2009 or reach the Docket Management Facility by that date.

ADDRESSES:

The dates and locations of the first four public meetings are provided in the following table. All meetings will be held from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. local time unless otherwise noted. The meetings may conclude before the allotted time if all matters of discussion have been addressed.

Date	Location	Phone
09/28/2009	Hotel 1000 Seattle, 1000 First Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104	206-957-1000.
09/30/2009	Hotel Monteleone, 214 Rue Royal, New Orleans, LA 70130	866-338-4684.
10/02/2009	Hilton Garden Inn Chicago Downtown/Magnificent Mile, 10 E. Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611	312-595-0000.
10/08/2009	U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1201 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460	202-564-9545.
10/27/2009	TBD, Oakland, CA	TBD.
10/29/2009	TBD, New York, NY	TBD.

You may submit written comments identified by docket number USCG-2001-10486 before or after the meeting using any one of the following methods:

(1) Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.

(2) Fax: [phone].

(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. Our online docket for this rulemaking is available on the Internet at http://www.regulations.gov under docket number USCG-2001-10486.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

If you have questions on this proposed rulemaking, call or e-mail Mr. John Morris, Project Manager, Environmental Standards Division, U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, telephone [phone], e-mail: [e-mail]. If you have questions on viewing or submitting material to the docket, call Ms. Renee V. Wright, Program Manager, Docket Operations, telephone [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The Coast Guard published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register on Friday, August 28, 2009 (74 FR 44632), entitled “Standards for Living Organisms in Ships' Ballast Water Discharged in U.S. Waters.” In it, we stated our intention to hold public meetings, and to publish a notice with additional details regarding those public meetings as soon as the information was available. 74 FR 44632. On Monday, September 14, 2009, we published a Notice of Public Meeting to inform the public of the date for each public meeting, as well as the city in which those meetings will be held. 74 FR 46964. That notice also stated that additional notice(s) would be published in the Federal Register as specific locations and details for these meetings were finalized. On Tuesday, September 22, 2009, we published a Notice of Public Meeting with the specific locations and details for the first two of the six public meetings. 74 FR 48190. This notice provides those details for the second two public meetings and restates the information for the first two public meetings. Those details are as follows:

Date	Location	Phone
09/28/2009	Hotel 1000 Seattle, 1000 First Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104	206-957-1000.
09/30/2009	Hotel Monteleone, 214 Rue Royal, New Orleans, LA 70130	866-338-4684.
10/02/2009	Hilton Garden Inn Chicago Downtown/Magnificent Mile, 10 E. Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611	312-595-0000.
10/08/2009	U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1201 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460	202-564-9545.
10/27/2009	TBD, Oakland, CA	TBD.
10/29/2009	TBD, New York, NY	TBD.

Written comments and related material may also be submitted to Coast Guard personnel specified at those meetings for inclusion in the official docket for this rulemaking.

Information on Service for Individuals with Disabilities

For information on facilities or services for individuals with disabilities or to request special assistance at the public meetings, contact Mr. John Morris at the telephone number or e-mail address indicated under the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this notice.

Dated: September 23, 2009.

F.J. Sturm,

Acting Director of Commercial Regulations and Standards, U.S. Coast Guard.