[Federal Register: March 13, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 50)]
[Notices]
[Page 13525]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr13mr08-35]
[[Page 13525]]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
[Docket No. APHIS-2007-0070]
Interstate Movement of Municipal Solid Waste From Hawaii;
Availability of an Environmental Assessment
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of availability and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service has prepared a regional programmatic environmental
assessment relative to requests to allow the interstate movement of
municipal solid waste from Hawaii to landfills in the States of Idaho,
Oregon, and Washington. The environmental assessment contains a general
assessment of the potential environmental effects associated with
moving garbage interstate from Hawaii to Idaho, Oregon, and Washington
subject to certain pest risk mitigation measures and documents our
review and analysis of the environmental impacts associated with, and
alternatives to, such movements. We are making the environmental
assessment available to the public for review and comment.
DATES: We will consider all comments that we receive on or before April
14, 2008.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by either of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://
www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/
main?main=DocketDetail&d=APHIS-2007-0070 to submit or view comments and
to view supporting and related materials available electronically.
Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Please send two copies of
your comment to Docket No. APHIS-2007-0070, Regulatory Analysis and
Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8, 4700 River Road, Unit 118,
Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state that your comment refers to
Docket No. APHIS-2007-0070.
Reading Room: You may read any comments that we receive on this
docket in our reading room. 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.
Other Information: Additional information about APHIS and its
programs is available on the Internet at http://www.aphis.usda.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Shannon Hamm, Acting Deputy
Administrator, Policy and Program Development, APHIS, 4700 River Road,
Unit 20, Riverdale, MD 20737-1231; (301) 734-4957.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The importation and interstate movement of garbage is regulated by
the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) under 7 CFR
330.400 and 9 CFR 94.5 (referred to below as the regulations) in order
to protect against the introduction into and dissemination within the
United States of plant and animal pests and diseases.
APHIS has received several requests to transport baled municipal
solid waste via barge from Hawaii to landfills in other States,
including Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, and we recognize that it is
possible that additional companies may request approval from APHIS for
such activity in the future. Given that expectation, we believe it
would be most efficient to comprehensively review the impacts of these
potential municipal solid waste actions in a single regional
programmatic environmental assessment of those connected and similar
actions.
Therefore, we have prepared a regional programmatic environmental
assessment, titled ``Regional Movement of Plastic-baled Municipal Solid
Waste from Hawaii to Washington, Oregon, and Idaho'' (February 2008),
that considers the movement of a cumulative maximum amount of baled
municipal solid waste from the State of Hawaii to any qualified
landfill in Washington, Oregon, or Idaho, under compliance agreements
with APHIS and in accordance with the standards previously established
by APHIS regarding baling, handling, spill response, and disposal.
As new requests to move municipal solid waste from Hawaii are
received, a specific environmental analysis will be prepared relative
to each request to determine whether the request is consistent with the
environmental effects and impacts analyzed in our February 2008
regional programmatic environmental assessment. The specific
environmental analysis prepared for each new request to move municipal
solid waste will be made available for a 30-day public comment period,
after which APHIS will announce its environmental and pest risk
decision regarding the new municipal solid waste movement proposal. If
a new petitioner's request were to result in exceeding the amount of
municipal solid waste moved from Hawaii (either individually or
cumulatively) or exceeding the number of barge trips or the amount of
rail or truck traffic considered in our February 2008 regional
programmatic environmental assessment, APHIS will amend the regional
programmatic environmental assessment to analyze the potential impacts
resulting from the changed conditions. The amended environmental
assessment would be made available for public comment followed by an
environmental and pest risk decision regarding the changed
characteristics for the movement of municipal solid waste from Hawaii
under the proposal.
We are making the regional programmatic environmental assessment
available to the public for review and comment. We will consider all
comments that we receive on or before the date listed under the heading
DATES at the beginning of this notice. The environmental assessment may
be viewed on the Internet on the Regulations.gov Web site or in our
reading room (see ADDRESSES above for a link to Regulations.gov and for
information on the location and hours of the reading room). You may
request paper copies of the environmental assessment by calling or
writing to the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
Please refer to the title of the document when requesting copies.
The environmental assessment has 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 7th day of March 2008.
Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. E8-5043 Filed 3-12-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-34-P