1936 Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 6 / Wednesday, January 9, 2013 / Notices 

1Tongue River R.R.—Rail Constr. and 

Operation—In Custer, Powder River and Rosebud 

Cntys., Mont. (Tongue River I), FD 30186 (ICC 

served Sept. 4, 1985), modified (ICC served May 9, 

1986), pet. for judicial review dismissed, N. Plains 

Res. Council v. ICC, 817 F.2d 758 (9th Cir.), cert. 

denied, 484 U.S. 976 (1987). 

2Tongue River R.R.—Rail Constr. and 

Operation—Ashland to Decker, Mont., 1 S.T.B. 809 

(1996), pet. for reconsid. denied (STB served Dec. 

31, 1996). 

3Tongue River R.R.—Rail Constr. and 

Operation—Western Alignment, FD 30186 (Sub-No. 

3) (STB served Oct. 9, 2007), pet. for reconsid. 

denied (STB served March 13, 2008). 

All filings in response to this notice 

must refer to Docket Nos. AB 33 (SubNo. 306X) and AB 1091X, and must be 

sent to: (1) Surface Transportation 

Board, 395 E Street SW., Washington, 

DC 20423–0001; and (2) Mack H. 

Shumate, Jr., 101 North Wacker Drive, 

#1920, Chicago, IL 60606. Replies to the 

joint petition are due on or before 

January 29, 2013. 

Persons seeking further information 

concerning abandonment procedures 

may contact the Board’s Office of Public 

Assistance, Governmental Affairs, and 

Compliance at (202) 245–0238 or refer 

to the full abandonment or 

discontinuance regulations at 49 CFR 

part 1152. Questions concerning 

environmental issues may be directed to 

the Board’s Office of Environmental 

Analysis (OEA) at (202) 245–0305. 

Assistance for the hearing impaired is 

available through the Federal 

Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1– 

800–877–8339. 

An environmental assessment (EA) (or 

environmental impact statement (EIS), if 

necessary) prepared by OEA will be 

served upon all parties of record and 

upon any agencies or other persons who 

comment during its preparation. Other 

interested persons may contact OEA to 

obtain a copy of the EA (or EIS). EAs in 

these abandonment proceedings 

normally will be made available within 

60 days of the filing of the petition. The 

deadline for submission of comments on 

the EA will generally bewithin 30 days 

of its service. 

This action will not significantly 

affect either the quality of the human 

environment or the conservation of 

energy resources. 

Decided: January 3, 2013. 

By the Board, Rachel D. Campbell, 

Director, Office of Proceedings. 

Derrick A. Gardner, 

Clearance Clerk. 

[FR Doc. 2013–00243 Filed 1–8–13; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4915–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Surface Transportation Board 

[Docket No. FD 30186] 

Tongue River Railroad Company, 

Inc.—Rail Construction and 

Operation—In Custer, Powder River 

and Rosebud Counties, MT 

AGENCY: Surface Transportation Board. 

ACTION: Notice of Supplemental 

Application for Construction and 

Operation Authority and Board 

Acceptance. 

SUMMARY: Tongue River Railroad 

Company, Inc. (TRRC) seeks a Board 

license under 49 U.S.C. 10901 to 

construct and operate a rail line in 

southeast Montana. The purpose of the 

proposed line is to transport low sulfur 

sub-bituminous coal from mine sites in 

the Otter Creek and Ashland, Mont., 

area. TRRC had filed a revised 

application for its construction 

authority on October 16, 2012, but 

modified the project in a December 17, 

2012 supplemental application that 

supersedes the October 16 revised 

application. As discussed in the 

supplemental application, TRRC’s 

preferred routing for the proposed line 

would be the Colstrip Alignment 

between Colstrip, Mont., and Ashland/ 

Otter Creek, Mont., the southern portion 

of which was approved previously by 

the Interstate Commerce Commission 

(ICC). 

The Board here gives notice that it is 

accepting the supplemental application. 

The Board has already established a 

service list for this proceeding in a 

notice served on September 20, 2012, 

and a procedural schedule for filings on 

the transportation merits in a decision 

served on November 1, 2012. Under that 

schedule, filings concerning whether 

the supplemental application meets the 

criteria of 49 U.S.C. 10901 are due by 

March 1, 2013, and any reply comment 

from TRRC is due by April 15, 2013. As 

indicated below, any entity that is not 

currently on the service list that submits 

a filing by March 1 will be added to the 

service list. 

DATES: This notice is effective on 

January 13, 2013. Pleadings must be 

filed in accordance with the procedural 

schedule that the Board has established 

in this case. All filings must be served 

concurrently on all parties of record and 

must be accompanied by a certificate of 

service. 

ADDRESSES: Any filing submitted in this 

proceeding must be submitted either via 

the Board’s e-filing format or in the 

traditional paper format. Any person 

using e-filing should attach a document 

and otherwise comply with the 

instructions found on the Board’s Web 

site at ‘‘www.stb.dot.gov’’ at the ‘‘E– 

FILING’’ link. Any person submitting a 

filing in the traditional paper format 

should send an original and 10 paper 

copies of the filing (and also an 

electronic version) to: Surface 

Transportation Board, 395 E Street SW., 

Washington, DC 20423–0001. In 

addition, one copy of each filing in this 

proceeding must be sent (and may be 

sent by email only if service by email is 

acceptable to the recipient) to each of 

the following: (1) David H. Coburn, 

Steptoe & Johnson LLP, 1330 

Connecticut Ave. NW., Washington, DC 

20036; and (2) any other person 

designated as a party of record on this 

proceeding’s service list. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Marc A. Lerner, (202) 245–0390. 

[Assistance for the hearing impaired is 

available through the Federal 

Information Relay Service (FIRS) at: 1– 

800–877–8339]. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 1986, 

the ICC authorized TRRC to construct an 

approximately 89-mile rail line between 

Miles City, Mont., and Ashland and 

Otter Creek, Mont., in a proceeding 

known as Tongue River I.1 In 1996, the 

Board authorized TRRC to build a 

contiguous 41-mile line from Ashland to 

Decker, Mont., in Tongue River II.2 In 

2007, the Board authorized TRRC to 

build and operate the Western 

Alignment, a 17.3-mile alternative route 

for a portion of the route already 

approved in Tongue River II, in a 

proceeding known as Tongue River III.3

Petitions for review of Tongue River II 

and Tongue River III were filed in the 

United States Court of Appeals for the 

Ninth Circuit, and, in 2011, the court 

affirmed in part, and reversed and 

remanded in part, those decisions for 

additional Board review. N. Plains Res. 

Council v. STB, 668 F.3d 1067 (9th Cir. 

2011). The court’s decision implicitly 

required the Board to revisit the 

environmental analysis for Tongue River 

I (as well as Tongue River II and Tongue 

River III), because the agency had 

conducted a cumulative impacts 

analysis for the entire line in Tongue 

River III, and not just the portion of the 

line at issue in Tongue River III, and had 

made the resulting mitigation 

conditions applicable to the entire line 

in its Tongue River III decision. On 

April 19, 2012, TRRC informed the 

Board that it no longer intended to build 

the Tongue River II and Tongue River III 

portions of the railroad. 

In a decision served on June 18, 2012, 

the Board dismissed Tongue River II and 

Tongue River III and reopened Tongue 


srobinson on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with 
Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 6 / Wednesday, January 9, 2013 / Notices 1937 

4See Tongue River R.R.—Rail Constr. and 

Operation—In Custer, Powder River and Rosebud 

Cntys., Mont., FD 30186, et al., slip op. at 2 (STB 

served June 18, 2012). 

5Although the decision granting Tongue River I 

authorized the construction of an 89-mile line, 

TRRC described the line in its October 16 filing as 

being approximately 83 miles in length, based on 

refinements that would straighten and shorten the 

alignment. 

6The Board’s review of construction applications 

is governed by 49 U.S.C. 10901, its regulations at 

49 CFR 1150.1–1150.10, and the requirements of 

the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 42 

U.S.C. 4321–4370f (and related environmental 

laws). 

7The ICC had examined a variation on the 

Colstrip Alignment as a potential route in Tongue 

River I. 

River I.4 As explained in more detail in 

that decision, the Board required TRRC 

to file a revised application that would 

present the its current plans to build a 

rail line between Miles City and 

Ashland. In addition, the Board 

announced that it would conduct a new 

environmental review, rather than a 

supplemental environmental review 

based on the three prior environmental 

reviews conducted in Tongue River I, 

Tongue River II, and Tongue River III. 

In its revised application filed on 

October 16, 2012, TRRC proposed to go 

forward with the Tongue River I project, 

although in modified form.5 After 

reviewing the submission, the Board, in 

a decision served on November 1, 2012, 

clarified that the Board’s review in this 

proceeding would include not only the 

new environmental review of the entire 

construction project, but also an 

examination of the transportation merits 

supporting the entire Tongue River I 

line.6 The November 1 decision also 

directed TRRC to supplement the 

revised application to provide a 

sufficient record for the Board’s review, 

including additional evidence and 

argument in support of the 

transportation merits. Finally, the 

decision established a new procedural 

schedule for filings on the 

transportation merits appropriate for 

this proceeding and required that TRRC 

publish notices consistent with that 

decision. 

On December 17, 2012, TRRC filed a 

supplemental application intended to 

supersede the October 16 filing. TRRC 

explained that, in its October 16 

application, it had proposed the 

construction of a line between Miles 

City, Mont., and Ashland/Otter Creek, 

Mont., following a line similar to that 

approved by the ICC in 1986. However, 

TRRC now proposes a different routing, 

known as the Colstrip Alignment, as its 

preferred alignment.7

According to TRRC, it would 

construct the line, and the line would be 

operated solely by BNSF Railway 

Company (BNSF), which owns a onethird interest in TRRC’s parent 

company, Tongue River Holding 

Company, LLC. TRRC states that, if 

selected as the preferred route, the 42- 

mile Colstrip Alignment would provide 

rail transportation for low sulfur, subbituminous coal from proposed mines 

in Rosebud and Powder River Counties, 

Mont., to an existing BNSF line, and 

consequently to the rest of the national 

rail network. Specifically, the line 

would connect at the north end with an 

existing and lightly used BNSF line 

known as the Colstrip Subdivision, 

which currently connects with the 

Forsyth Subdivision at Nichols Wye, a 

point approximately 6 miles west of 

Forsyth and approximately 50 miles 

west of Miles City. At its southern end, 

the Colstrip Alignment would have the 

same two termini south of Ashland as 

those proposed by TRRC in its October 

16 filing. Terminus Point 1 would, 

therefore, be at the previously proposed 

Montco Mine location, and Terminus 

Point 2 would lie along the Otter Creek 

drainage. TRRC claims that the Colstrip 

Alignment offers the shortest, most cost 

effective, and least environmentally 

impactful routing for the proposed line. 

Comments on the transportation 

aspects of TRRC’s supplemental 

application may be filed on or before 

March 1, 2013. Interested persons need 

not be on the service list to file 

comments on TRRC’s supplemental 

application, but they must serve a copy 

of their filing on TRRC and those on the 

service list. At that point, the 

commenting party will be added to the 

service list. TRRC may file a reply to the 

comments on or before April 15, 2013. 

The Board’s environmental review for 

this rail construction project is 

proceeding separately from our review 

of its transportation merits. Because the 

construction and operation of this 

project has the potential to result in 

significant environmental impacts, the 

Board’s Office of Environmental 

Analysis (OEA) has determined that the 

preparation of an Environmental Impact 

Statement (EIS) is appropriate. OEA 

issued a notice to stakeholders and the 

public on October 22, 2012, announcing 

its intent to prepare the EIS and 

requesting comments on a draft scope of 

study. In November, OEA held scoping 

meetings in the project area to assist in 

defining the range of issues and 

alternatives to be considered in the EIS. 

Comments on the scope of the EIS must 

be submitted to OEA by January 11, 

2013. Subsequently, OEA will issue a 

final scope of study for the EIS. 

Following the completion of scoping, 

OEA will prepare and issue a Draft EIS 

for public review and comment. The 

comments received will be addressed in 

a Final EIS. The Draft and Final EISs 

(including the public comments) will 

serve as the basis for OEA’s 

recommendations to the Board 

regarding whether, from an 

environmental perspective, TRRC’s 

supplemental application should be 

granted, granted with environmental 

conditions, or denied. 

The Board’s decision on TRRC’s 

supplemental application then will take 

into consideration both the 

transportation merits and the 

environmental impacts of constructing 

and operating the proposed line. 

This decision will not significantly 

affect either the quality of the human 

environment or the conservation of 

energy resources. 

Board decisions and notices are 

available on our Web site at 

www.stb.dot.gov. 

Decided: January 4, 2013. 

By the Board, Chairman Elliott, Vice 

Chairman Begeman, and Commissioner 

Mulvey. 

Jeffrey Herzig, 

Clearance Clerk. 

[FR Doc. 2013–00242 Filed 1–8–13; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4915–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 

Proposed Collection; Comment 

Request 

ACTION: Notice and request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: The Department of the 

Treasury, as part of its continuing effort 

to reduce paperwork burdens, invites 

the general public and other Federal 

agencies to comment on a currently 

approved information collection that is 

due for extension approval by the Office 

of Management and Budget. The 

Terrorism Risk Insurance Program 

Office within the Department of the 

Treasury is soliciting comments 

concerning the Record Keeping 

Requirements set forth in 31 CFR part 

50.8. 

DATES: Written comments must be 

received on or before March 11, 2013. 

ADDRESSES: Submit comments by email 

to triacomments@do.treas.gov or by 

mail (if hard copy, preferably an original 

and two copies) to: Terrorism Risk 

Insurance Program, Public Comment 

Record, Suite 2100, Department of the 

Treasury, 1425 New York Ave. NW., 

Washington, DC 20220. Because paper 

mail in the Washington DC area may be 

subject to delay, it is recommended that 

comments be submitted electronically. 


srobinson on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with