[Federal Register: December 3, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 231)]
[Notices]
[Page 67881-67882]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr03de07-23]
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Notices
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains documents other than rules
or proposed rules that are applicable to the public. Notices of hearings
and investigations, committee meetings, agency decisions and rulings,
delegations of authority, filing of petitions and applications and agency
statements of organization and functions are examples of documents
appearing in this section.
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[[Page 67881]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
[Docket No. APHIS-2007-0135]
Citrus Greening and Asian Citrus Psyllid; Availability of a
Finding of No Significant Impact
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that we have prepared a finding of
no significant impact relative to a new Federal order that restricts
the interstate movement of regulated articles from areas quarantined
for citrus greening disease and the Asian citrus psyllid. The finding
of no significant impact is based on an environmental assessment that
we prepared to document our review and analysis of the potential
environmental impacts associated with the implementation of the new
Federal order. In a notice published in the Federal Register on
November 2, 2007, we made the environmental assessment available to the
public for review and comment, but noted that we may have to begin an
expanded citrus greening regulatory program in Florida immediately and
issue a finding of no significant impact for the environmental
assessment before the comment period on the environmental assessment
concludes.
DATES: The finding of no significant impact was signed on November 2,
2007.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Stephen R. Poe, Senior Operations
Officer, Emergency and Domestic Programs, PPQ, APHIS, 4700 River Road
Unit 134, Riverdale, MD 20737-1236; (301) 734-8899.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Citrus greening, also known as huanglongbing, is considered to be
one of the most serious citrus diseases in the world. Citrus greening
is a bacterial disease that attacks the vascular system of plants. The
bacteria are phloem-limited and cause yellow shoots, blotchy mottling
and chlorosis, reduced foliage, and tip dieback of citrus plants. It
greatly reduces production, destroys the economic value of the fruit,
and can kill trees. Once infected, there is no cure for a tree with
citrus greening disease. In areas of the world where citrus greening is
endemic, citrus trees decline and die within a few years and may never
produce usable fruit. Citrus greening is widespread in Asia, Africa,
and the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. It has been reported in Sao Paulo,
Brazil. It was first detected in the United States in Miami-Dade
County, Florida, in 2005, and now has been confirmed in 28 counties in
Florida.
On November 2, 2007, we published a notice \1\ in the Federal
Register (72 FR 62204-62205, Docket No. APHIS-2007-0135) in which we
advised the public that an environmental assessment had been prepared
by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) relative to a
new Federal order that restricts the interstate movement of regulated
articles from areas quarantined for citrus greening disease and the
Asian citrus psyllid. The environmental assessment documents our review
and analysis of the potential environmental impacts associated with the
implementation of the new Federal order. We made the environmental
assessment available to the public for review and solicited comments
for 30 days ending on December 3, 2007.
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\1\ You may view the environmental assessment and submit
comments on that document by going to http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=APHIS-2007-0135
.
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In our November 2, 2007, notice, we informed the public that due to
the serious and destructive nature of citrus greening disease, we had
found it necessary to expand the number of counties in Florida from
which the movement of plants that are hosts of citrus greening is
present in order to prevent the further spread and infestation of the
disease and to expand the areas quarantined due to the presence of
Asian citrus psyllid so that host plants can be treated and inspected
before being moved interstate.
That notice also stated that, because citrus greening is a highly
injurious citrus disease and the Asian citrus psyllid is harmful both
as the insect vector of the disease and as a significant citrus pest in
its own right, we had determined that it may be necessary to
immediately address both the disease and the associated insect pest.
This, we explained, would be accomplished by restricting the movement
of hosts of citrus greening from areas where the disease is present,
and by regulating and treating plants that are hosts of the psyllid
from those areas where the insect is present and may be spread through
the movement of infested nursery stock.
Based on those considerations, we advised the public that APHIS may
have to begin the expanded citrus greening regulatory program in
Florida immediately and issue a finding of no significant impact for
the environmental assessment before the comment period on the
environmental assessment concluded. We stated that if that were to
occur, we would still evaluate and respond to all the comments we
received on the environmental assessment after the comment period has
ended.
On November 2, 2007, APHIS issued the new Federal order
quarantining 28 Florida counties for citrus greening and quarantining
32 Texas counties and the entirety of the States of Florida and Hawaii,
the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the territory of Guam for Asian
citrus psyllid. The Federal order restricts the movement of all live
host plants and host plant parts from areas quarantined for citrus
greening and requires Asian citrus psyllid host material to be
inspected, treated, and the accompanied by a limited permit in order to
be moved from a quarantined area. Because we have found it necessary to
begin the expanded citrus greening regulatory program in Florida
immediately, we have likewise found it necessary to issue a finding of
no significant impact for the environmental assessment before the
comment period on the environmental assessment has concluded.
The finding of no significant impact may be viewed, along with the
environmental assessment on which it is based, on the Regulations.gov
Web
[[Page 67882]]
site \2\ or in our reading room.\3\ You may request paper copies of the
environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact by
calling or writing to the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT. Please refer to the title of the environmental assessment when
requesting copies.
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\2\ See footnote 1.
\3\ The reading room is located in room 1141 of the USDA South
Building, 14th Street and Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC.
Normal reading room hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through
Friday, except holidays. To be sure someone is there to help you,
please call (202) 690-2817 before coming.
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The environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact
have been prepared in accordance with: (1) The National Environmental
Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), (2)
regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality for implementing
the procedural provisions of NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), (3) USDA
regulations implementing NEPA (7 CFR part 1), and (4) APHIS' NEPA
Implementing Procedures (7 CFR part 372).
Done in Washington, DC, this 27th day of November 2007.
Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. E7-23369 Filed 11-30-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-34-P