33204 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 108 / Tuesday, June 5, 2012 / Notices 

20202. Email: equitycommission@ed.

gov. Telephone: (202) 453–6567. 

John DiPaolo, 

Chief of Staff, Assistant Secretary for Civil 

Rights, Office for Civil Rights. 

[FR Doc. 2012–13499 Filed 6–4–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Notice of Intent To Prepare a 

Supplemental Environmental Impact 

Statement for the Long-Term 

Management and Storage of Elemental 

Mercury 

AGENCY: Department of Energy. 

ACTION: Notice of intent. 

SUMMARY: As required by the Mercury 

Export Ban Act of 2008 (the Act), the 

Department of Energy (DOE) plans to 

identify a facility or facilities for the 

long-term management and storage of 

elemental mercury generated in the 

United States. To this end, DOE intends 

to prepare a supplement to the January 

2011 Environmental Impact Statement 

for the Long-Term Management and 

Storage of Elemental Mercury to analyze 

additional alternatives, in accordance 

with the National Environmental Policy 

Act (NEPA). This supplemental EIS 

(SEIS) will evaluate alternatives for a 

facility at and in the vicinity of the 

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near 

Carlsbad, New Mexico. 

DATES: DOE invites public comment on 

the scope of this SEIS until July 5, 2012. 

The first scoping meeting will be held 

on June 26, 2012, from 5:30 p.m.–8 p.m., 

at the Skeen-Whitlock Building 

auditorium at the U.S. DOE, Carlsbad 

Field Office, 4021 National Parks 

Highway, Carlsbad, New Mexico 88220. 

An open house will be held on the same 

day at the same location from 4:30 p.m.– 

5:30 p.m. A second scoping meeting 

will be held on June 28, 2012, from 6 

p.m.–8:30 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza 

Albuquerque, 1901 University Blvd. 

NE., Albuquerque, New Mexico 87102. 

An open house will be held on the same 

day at the same location from 4:30 p.m.– 

6 p.m. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments on the 

scope of the SEIS should be sent to: Mr. 

David Levenstein, Document Manager, 

Office of Environmental Compliance 

(EM–11), U.S. Department of Energy, 

Post Office Box 2612, Germantown, 

Maryland 20874; to the Mercury Storage 

EIS Web site at http:// 

mercurystorageeis.com/; or via email to 

David.Levenstein@em.doe.gov. 

This Notice will be available on the 

Internet at http://www.energy.gov/ 

NEPA/ and on the project Web site at 

http://mercurystorageeis.com/. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To 

request further information about the 

SEIS or the Mercury Storage EIS, or to 

be placed on the SEIS distribution list, 

use any of the methods (mail, Web site, 

or email) listed under ADDRESSES above. 

In requesting a copy of the Draft SEIS, 

please specify a request for a paper copy 

of the Summary only; a paper copy of 

the full SEIS; the full SEIS on a 

computer CD; or any combination 

thereof. 

For general information concerning 

DOE’s NEPA process, please contact: 

Ms. Carol M. Borgstrom, Director, Office 

of NEPA Policy and Compliance (GC– 

54), U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 

Independence Avenue SW., 

Washington, DC 20585, either by 

telephone at (202) 586–4600, by fax at 

(202) 586–7031, or leave a message at 1– 

800–472–2756. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The Mercury Export Ban Act of 2008 

(Pub. L. 110–414) amends the Toxic 

Substances Control Act (TSCA) (15 

U.S.C. 2605(f)) to prohibit the sale, 

distribution, or transfer by Federal 

agencies to any other Federal agency, 

any state or local government agency, or 

any private individual or entity, of any 

elemental mercury under the control or 

jurisdiction of a Federal agency (with 

certain limited exceptions). It also 

amends TSCA (15 U.S.C. 2611(c)) to 

prohibit the export of elemental 

mercury from the U.S. effective January 

1, 2013 (subject to certain essential use 

exemptions). Section 5 of the Act, LongTerm Storage, directs DOE to designate 

a facility or facilities for the long-term 

management and storage of elemental 

mercury generated within the U.S. 

Pursuant to this law, this facility is 

required to be operational and ready to 

accept custody of any elemental 

mercury generated within the U.S. by 

January 1, 2013. The Act also requires 

DOE to assess fees based upon the pro 

rata costs of long-term management and 

storage of elemental mercury delivered 

to the facility or facilities. 

The sources of elemental mercury in 

the U.S. include mercury used in the 

chlorine and caustic soda 

manufacturing process (i.e., chlor-alkali 

industry), reclaimed from recycling and 

waste recovery activities, and generated 

as a byproduct of the gold mining 

process. In addition, DOE’s National 

Nuclear Security Administration stores 

approximately 1,200 metric tons of 

elemental mercury at the Oak Ridge 

Reservation in Tennessee. 

To evaluate the range of reasonable 

alternatives for siting, constructing and 

operating a facility or facilities to meet 

its obligations under the Act, DOE 

prepared the Mercury Storage EIS (DOE/ 

EIS–0423) in accordance with NEPA 

and its implementing regulations (40 

CFR parts 1500–1508 and 10 CFR part 

1021) and issued the Mercury Storage 

Final EIS in January 2011 (76 FR 5156). 

DOE estimated that up to approximately 

10,000 metric tons of elemental mercury 

would need to be managed and stored 

at the DOE facility during the 40-year 

period of analysis. These estimates do 

not include approximately 4,400 metric 

tons of elemental mercury that the 

Department of Defense (DOD) stores at 

its facility in Hawthorne, Nevada. 

Purpose and Need for Action 

As indicated in the Mercury Storage 

EIS, DOE needs to designate a facility 

for the long-term management and 

storage of elemental mercury generated 

within the U.S., as required by the Act. 

Proposed Action 

As also indicated in the Mercury 

Storage EIS, DOE proposes to construct 

one or more new facilities and/or select 

one or more existing facilities (including 

modification as needed) for the longterm management and storage of 

elemental mercury in accordance with 

the Act. Facilities to be constructed as 

well as existing or modified facilities 

must comply with applicable 

requirements of section 5(d) of the Act, 

Management Standards for a Facility, 

including the requirements of the Solid 

Waste Disposal Act as amended by the 

Resource Conservation and Recovery 

Act (42 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.), and other 

permitting requirements. 

Proposed Alternatives 

The Mercury Storage EIS evaluated 

seven candidate locations for the 

elemental mercury storage facility, as 

well as the No Action Alternative. 

Those candidate locations are: DOE 

Grand Junction Disposal site near Grand 

Junction, Colorado; DOE Hanford site 

near Richland, Washington; Hawthorne 

Army Depot near Hawthorne, Nevada; 

DOE Idaho National Laboratory near 

Idaho Falls, Idaho; DOE Kansas City 

Plant in Kansas City, Missouri; DOE 

Savannah River Site near Aiken, South 

Carolina; and Waste Control Specialists, 

LLC, site near Andrews, Texas. 

Since publication of the Final 

Mercury Storage EIS, DOE has 

reconsidered the range of reasonable 

alternatives evaluated in that EIS. 

Accordingly, DOE now proposes to 

evaluate two additional locations for a 

long-term mercury storage facility, both 


srobinson on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 108 / Tuesday, June 5, 2012 / Notices 33205 

near the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant 

(WIPP), which DOE operates for 

disposal of defense transuranic waste. 

One of the additional locations to be 

evaluated is in Section 20, Township 22 

South, Range 31 East within the land 

subject to the WIPP Land Withdrawal 

Act (Pub. L. 102–579) as amended (Act), 

across the WIPP access road from the 

WIPP facility. The second is in the 

vicinity of WIPP, but outside of the 

lands withdrawn by the Act, in Section 

10, Township 22 South, Range 31 East, 

approximately 31⁄2 miles north of the 

WIPP facility. Through development of 

the SEIS, DOE will evaluate the 

cumulative impacts of constructing and 

operating a facility for long-term 

management and storage of elemental 

mercury with the ongoing and planned 

operations of WIPP for disposal of 

defense transuranic waste, as well as the 

potential disposal of greater-than-Class 

C waste (Draft Environmental Impact 

Statement for the Disposal of GreaterThan-Class C (GTCC) Low-level 

Radioactive Waste and GTCC–Like 

Waste (GTCC EIS, DOE/EIS–0375, 

February 2011). The locations to be 

evaluated in the SEIS would be suitable 

for an above-ground storage facility. 

Identification of Environmental Issues 

DOE proposes to analyze the potential 

environmental impacts of the two 

additional alternatives for management 

and storage of elemental mercury as 

they apply to the following: 

• Land use and visual resources. 

• Geology, soils, and geologic 

hazards, including seismicity. 

• Water resources (surface water and 

groundwater). 

• Meteorology, air quality and noise. 

• Ecological resources (terrestrial 

resources, wetlands and aquatic 

resources, and species that are Federalor state-listed as threatened, 

endangered, or of special concern). 

• Cultural and paleontological 

resources such as prehistoric, historic, 

or Native American sites. 

• Site infrastructure. 

• Waste management. 

• Occupational and public health and 

safety, including from construction, 

operations, facility accidents, 

transportation, and intentional 

destructive acts. 

• Ecological risk. 

• Socioeconomic impacts on 

potentially affected communities. 

• Environmental Justice (i.e., whether 

long-term mercury management and 

storage activities have a 

disproportionately high and adverse 

effect on minority and low-income 

populations). 

• Facility closure. 

• Cumulative impacts, including 

global commons cumulative impacts, 

i.e., ozone depletion and climate 

change. 

• Potential mitigation measures. 

• Unavoidable adverse environmental 

impacts. 

• Irreversible and irretrievable 

commitments of resources. 

• Relationship between short-term 

uses of the environment and 

maintenance and enhancement of longterm productivity. 

Public Participation in the SEIS Process 

NEPA implementing regulations 

require an early and open process for 

determining the scope of an EIS (or 

SEIS) and for identifying the significant 

issues related to the proposed action. To 

ensure that the full range of issues 

related to the proposed action are 

addressed, DOE invites Federal 

agencies, state, local, and tribal 

governments, and the general public to 

comment on the scope of the SEIS, 

including identification of reasonable 

alternatives and specific issues to be 

addressed. DOE will hold a public 

scoping meeting in Carlsbad, New 

Mexico, on June 26, 2012, and in 

Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 28, 

2012, as previously described (see 

DATES). 

Issued in Washington, DC, on May 24, 

2012. 

Mark A. Gilbertson, 

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Site 

Restoration. 

[FR Doc. 2012–13614 Filed 6–4–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6450–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

Combined Notice of Filings 

May 30, 2012. 

Take notice that the Commission has 

received the following Natural Gas 

Pipeline Rate and Refund Report filings: 

Filings Instituting Proceedings 

Docket Numbers: RP12–754–000. 

Applicants: Arkansas Electric 

Cooperative Corp., Hot Spring Power 

Company, LLC. 

Description: Petition for Waiver of Gas 

Regulations of Arkansas Electric 

Cooperative Corporation and Hot Spring 

Power Company, LLC in RP12–754. 

Filed Date: 5/25/12. 

Accession Number: 20120525–5153. 

Comments Due: 5 p.m. ET 6/6/12. 

Docket Numbers: RP12–755–000. 

Applicants: MarkWest Pioneer, LLC. 

Description: MarkWest Pioneer— 

Quarterly FRP Filing to be effective 7/ 

1/2012. 

Filed Date: 5/29/12. 

Accession Number: 20120529–5201. 

Comments Due: 5 p.m. ET 6/11/12. 

Any person desiring to intervene or 

protest in any of the above proceedings 

must file in accordance with Rules 211 

and 214 of the Commission’s 

Regulations (18 CFR 385.211 and 

385.214) on or before 5:00 p.m. Eastern 

time on the specified comment date. 

Protests may be considered, but 

intervention is necessary to become a 

party to the proceeding. 

Filings in Existing Proceedings 

Docket Numbers: CP10–16–001. 

Applicants: Cadeville Gas Storage 

LLC. 

Description: Abbreviated amendment 

of Cadeville Gas Storage LLC under 

CP10–16. 

Filed Date: 5/15/12. 

Accession Number: 20120515–5240. 

Comments Due: 5 p.m. ET 6/4/12. 

Any person desiring to protest in any 

the above proceedings must file in 

accordance with Rule 211 of the 

Commission’s Regulations (18 CFR 

385.211) on or before 5:00 p.m. Eastern 

time on the specified comment date. 

The filings are accessible in the 

Commission’s eLibrary system by 

clicking on the links or querying the 

docket number. 

eFiling is encouraged. More detailed 

information relating to filing 

requirements, interventions, protests, 

and service can be found at: http://www.

ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling/filing-req.

pdf. For other information, call (866) 

208–3676 (toll free). For TTY, call (202) 

502–8659. 

Nathaniel J. Davis, Sr., 

Deputy Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2012–13552 Filed 6–4–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

Combined Notice of Filings 

Take notice that the Commission has 

received the following Natural Gas 

Pipeline Rate and Refund Report filings: 

Filings Instituting Proceedings 

Docket Numbers: RP12–748–000. 

Applicants: Algonquin Gas 

Transmission, LLC. 

Description: AGT Negotiated Rate— 

Taunton 66667 to be effective 6/1/2012. 

Filed Date: 5/24/12. 


srobinson on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES