38666 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 148 / Tuesday, August 4, 2009 / Notices 

mail to: forms.ice@dhs.gov with ‘‘ICE 

Form I–246’’ in the subject line. 

Dated: July 30, 2009. 

Joseph M. Gerhart, 

Chief, Records Management Branch, Office 

of Asset Management, U.S. Immigration and 

Customs Enforcement, Department of 

Homeland Security. 

[FR Doc. E9–18612 Filed 8–3–09; 8:45 am] 

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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND 

SECURITY 

Coast Guard 

[Docket No. USCG–2008–0126] 

Application for the Tank Ship S/R 

AMERICAN PROGRESS, Review for 

Inclusion in the Shipboard Technology 

Evaluation Program; Final 

Environmental Assessment 

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. 

ACTION: Notice of availability. 

SUMMARY: The Coast Guard announces 

the availability of the Final 

Environmental Assessment (FEA) for 

the tank ship S/R AMERICAN 

PROGRESS. The FEA describes the S/R 

AMERICAN PROGRESS application for 

the Shipboard Technology Evaluation 

Program (STEP) Ballast Water 

Management System (BWMS) initiative. 

The FEA for the S/R AMERICAN 

PROGRESS also addresses potential 

effects on the human and natural 

environments from installing, testing, 

and using the SevernTrentDeNora 

(STDN) BalPureTM ballast water 

treatment system as the vessel operates 

in U.S. waters. 

ADDRESSES: Comments and material 

received from the public, as well as 

documents mentioned in this notice as 

being available in the docket, are part of 

the docket USCG–2008–0126. These 

documents are available for inspection 

or copying at the 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, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., 

Monday through Friday, except Federal 

holidays. You can also find all docketed 

documents on the Federal Document 

Management System at http:// 

www.regulations.gov, United States 

Coast Guard docket number USCG– 

2008–0126. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If 

you have questions on this notice, call 

or e-mail LCDR Brian Moore, U.S. Coast 

Guard; telephone 202–372–1434, e-mail 

brian.e.moore@uscg.mil. If you have 

questions on viewing the docket, call 

Renee V. Wright, Program Manager, 

Docket Operations, telephone 202–366– 

9826. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background and Purpose 

In the Nonindigenous Aquatic 

Nuisance Prevention and Control Act of 

1990, as reauthorized, and as amended 

by the National Invasive Species Act of 

1996, Public Law 101–646 and Public 

Law 104–332, respectively, Congress 

directed the Coast Guard to prevent, to 

the maximum extent practicable, 

introduction of aquatic nonindigenous 

species from ballast water discharged by 

ships (16 U.S.C. 4711). To achieve this 

objective, the Coast Guard wrote new 

regulations in 33 CFR 151, subparts C 

and D. (58 FR 18330, Apr. 8, 1993, and 

69 FR 44952, Jul. 28, 2004, 

respectively). 

On December 8, 2004, the Coast 

Guard published a notice in the Federal 

Register (69 FR 71068, Dec. 8, 2004), 

announcing its Shipboard Technology 

Evaluation Program (STEP) for 

experimental shipboard ballast water 

treatment systems. The program goal is 

to promote development of alternatives 

to ballast water exchange as a means of 

preventing invasive species from 

entering U.S. waters through ships’ 

ballast water. The comments we 

received support testing prototype 

treatment equipment and developing 

effective and practicable standards for 

approving this equipment. 

In accordance with the National 

Environmental Policy Act of 1969 

(Section 102(2)(c)), as implemented by 

the Council of Environmental Quality 

regulations in 40 CFR parts 1500–1508, 

and Coast Guard Commandant 

Instruction M16475.1D, ‘‘National 

Environmental Policy Act Implementing 

Procedures and Policy for Considering 

Environmental Impacts,’’ the Coast 

Guard prepared a Programmatic 

Environmental Assessment (PEA) for 

the STEP to evaluate the environmental 

impacts from installing and operating a 

limited number of prototype ballast 

water treatment systems (69 FR 71068, 

Dec. 8, 2004). The PEA can be found in 

docket USCG–2001–9267. The PEA 

addresses potential effects to the natural 

and human environments including 

fish, marine mammals, invertebrates, 

microorganisms and plankton, 

submerged and emergent aquatic 

vegetation, threatened and endangered 

species, and essential fish habitat. It also 

requires each system to be evaluated for 

localized effects on the ports and 

waterways where a vessel involved in 

the program operates. 

The Coast Guard announced the 

availability and request for public 

comments of the Draft Environmental 

Assessment (DEA) for the tank ship 

S/R AMERICAN PROGRESS by Federal 

Register notice on December 1, 2008 (73 

FR 72825, Dec. 1, 2008). The comment 

period was open until December 31, 

2008. The California State Lands 

Commission (CSLC) had commented on 

previous Draft Environmental 

Assessments regarding three other 

vessels with STEP applications, 

specifically, STEP applications 

regarding the cruise ship CORAL 

PRINCESS (73 FR 72817, Dec. 1, 2008), 

the integrated tug and barge MOKU 

PAHU (73 FR 72819, Dec. 1, 2008), and 

the vessel ATLANTIC COMPASS (73 FR 

72814, Dec. 1, 2008). Due to the high 

level of interest previously shown by 

CSLC, and that just prior to the end of 

the comment period on the DEA for 

S/R AMERICAN PROGRESS there were 

no public comments, the Coast Guard 

contacted CSLC prior to the closing of 

the comment period to ensure CSLC was 

aware of the posting. Soon after the 

comment period had expired, CSLC 

replied directly to Coast Guard via email with comments. The CLSC 

submitted 23 substantive comments, 

and 19 editorial comments. All 

comments from CSLC were posted by 

the Coast Guard to the docket. The Coast 

Guard received no other comments from 

any source. 

The 19 editorial comments from CLSC 

were adopted and incorporated in the 

Final Environmental Assessment (FEA) 

to improve readability. The adopted 

edits made no substantive changes to 

the FEA. The remaining comments with 

the Coast Guard’s response are provided 

as appendix G in the FEA. 

This notice is issued under authority 

of the National Environmental Policy 

Act of 1969 (Section 102 (2)(c)), as 

implemented by the Council of 

Environmental Quality regulations (40 

CFR parts 1500–1508) and Coast Guard 

Commandant Instruction M16475.1D. 

Dated: July 28, 2009. 

J.G. Lantz, 

Director of Commercial Regulations and 

Standards, U.S. Coast Guard. 

[FR Doc. E9–18495 Filed 8–3–09; 8:45 am] 

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