Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 30 / Tuesday, February 13, 2024 / Proposed Rules 10019 

original comment period is set to close 

on February 26, 2024. The extension is 

based on concern expressed by 

stakeholders that the February 26, 2024, 

closing date does not provide sufficient 

time to review and provide 

comprehensive comments. The FHWA 

recognizes that others interested in 

commenting may have similar concerns 

and agrees that the comment period 

should be extended. Therefore, the 

closing date for comments is changed to 

March 12, 2024, which will provide 

stakeholders and others interested in 

commenting additional time to discuss, 

evaluate, and submit responses to the 

docket. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before March 12, 2024. Late-filed 

comments will be considered to the 

extent practicable. 

ADDRESSES: To ensure that you do not 

duplicate your docket submissions, 

please submit them by only one of the 

following means: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

www.regulations.gov and follow the 

online instructions for submitting 

comments. 

• Mail: Docket Management Facility, 

U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 

New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building 

Ground Floor, Room W12–140, 

Washington, DC 20590; 

• Hand Delivery: West Building 

Ground Floor, Room W12–140, 1200 

New Jersey Avenue SE, between 9:00 

a.m.–5:00 p.m., e.t., Monday through 

Friday, except Federal holidays. The 

telephone number is (202) 366–9329; 

• Instructions: You must include the 

agency name and docket number or the 

Regulatory Identification Number for 

the rulemaking at the beginning of your 

comments. All comments received will 

be posted without change to 

www.regulations.gov, including any 

personal information provided. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mrs. 

Alexis Kuklenski, Office of 

Infrastructure, (202) 689–9229, 

Alexis.Kuklenski@dot.gov, or Ms. Dawn 

Horan, Office of the Chief Counsel, (202) 

366–9615, Dawn.M.Horan@dot.gov, 

Federal Highway Administration, 1200 

New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 

20590. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Electronic Access and Filing 

This document and all comments 

received may be viewed online through 

the Federal eRulemaking portal at 

www.regulations.gov. The website is 

available 24 hours each day, 365 days 

each year. An electronic copy of this 

document may also be downloaded by 

accessing the Office of the Federal 

Register’s home page at: 

www.federalregister.gov. 

Background 

On January 25, 2024, at 89 FR 4857, 

FHWA published in the Federal 

Register an NPRM proposing updates to 

the National Performance Management 

Measure regulations. The original 

comment period for the NPRM closes on 

February 26, 2024. Stakeholders have 

expressed concern that this closing date 

does not provide sufficient time to 

review and provide comprehensive 

comments on the proposal. The FHWA 

recognizes that others interested in 

commenting may have similar concerns 

and agrees that the comment period 

should be extended by 15 days for these 

organizations and others to submit 

comprehensive comments. The closing 

date is changed from February 26, 2024, 

to March 12, 2024. 

Authority: 23 U.S.C. 134, 135, 148, and 

150; 49 CFR 1.85. 

Shailen P. Bhatt, 

Administrator, Federal Highway 

Administration. 

[FR Doc. 2024–02835 Filed 2–12–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND 

SECURITY 

Coast Guard 

33 CFR Parts 166 and 167 

[Docket No. USCG–2019–0279] 

Shipping Safety Fairways Along the 

Atlantic Coast; Geographic Information 

System Files 

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. 

ACTION: Notice of availability. 

SUMMARY: The Coast Guard published a 

proposed rule detailing the potential 

establishment of shipping safety 

fairways along the Atlantic coast. In 

order to help stakeholders visualize the 

proposed fairways, the Coast Guard is 

making geographic information system 

files available for public access. 

DATES: Comments submitted on the 

proposed rule published January 19, 

2024, at 89 FR 3587, must be received 

by the Coast Guard on or before April 

18, 2024. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

information about this document call or 

email Maureen Kallgren, Coast Guard; 

telephone 202–372–1561, email 

Maureen.R.Kallgren2@uscg.mil. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Coast 

Guard published a proposed rule on 

January 19, 2024, proposing a series of 

shipping safety fairways along the 

Atlantic Coast (89 FR 3587). If you want 

to submit comments or related material 

on the proposed rule they must be 

received by the Coast Guard on or before 

April 18, 2024. 

In order to visualize the dimensions 

of the proposed fairways, many 

stakeholders reached out and asked for 

the geographic information system (GIS) 

files that chart the fairways. A GIS file 

displays geographically referenced 

information, in this case the location 

and dimensions of the proposed 

fairways. These files are now available 

for public access at https://www.navcen.

uscg.gov/rulemaking-files. 

This document is issued under 

authority found in 5 U.S.C. 552(a). 

Dated: February 6, 2024. 

Steven E. Ramassini, 

Captain, United States Coast Guard, Chief, 

Office of Navigation Systems. 

[FR Doc. 2024–02769 Filed 2–12–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 9110–04–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Office of the Secretary 

43 CFR Part 11 

[Docket No. DOI–2022–0016; 24XD1618EN, 

DS61600000, DMNHQ0000.000000] 

RIN 1090–AB26 

Natural Resource Damages for 

Hazardous Substances 

AGENCY: Office of Restoration and 

Damage Assessment, Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of Tribal consultation 

meetings and extension of public 

comment period. 

SUMMARY: The Department of the 

Interior is announcing the dates of 

Tribal consultation meetings to gather 

information to revise the simplified 

Type A procedures in the regulations for 

conducting natural resource damage 

assessment and restoration for 

hazardous substance releases. We are 

also extending the comment period on 

our Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 

issued on January 5, 2024. 

DATES: The public comment period on 

our request for information notice that 

published on January 5, 2024, at 89 FR 

733 is extended. Interested persons are 

invited to submit comments by 11:59 

p.m. April 5, 2024. 

The Office of Restoration and Damage 

Assessment will host virtual Tribal 

consultation sessions at the dates and 

times below. Please use the following 

links to register for one of the sessions: 


lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with PROPOSALS1
10020 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 30 / Tuesday, February 13, 2024 / Proposed Rules 

Tuesday, March 26th at 1 p.m. (eastern): 

https://msteams.link/YWY9 

Wednesday, March 27th at 10 a.m. 

(eastern): https://msteams.link/EWXT 

Thursday, March 28th at 1 p.m. 

(eastern): https://msteams.link/ZBQM 

ADDRESSES: Comments may be 

submitted through https://

www.regulations.gov and will be 

available for public viewing and 

inspection. In the Search box, enter the 

docket number presented above in the 

document headings. For best results, do 

not copy and paste the number; instead, 

type the docket number into the Search 

box using hyphens. Then, click on the 

Search button. You may submit a 

comment by clicking on ‘‘Comment.’’ 

Comments may also be hand delivered 

or mailed to the Office of Restoration 

and Damage Assessment, U.S. 

Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street 

Northwest, Mail Stop/Room 2627, 

Washington, DC 20240. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Emily Joseph, Director, Office of 

Restoration and Damage Assessment, 

(202) 208–4438, or by email to emily_

joseph@ios.doi.gov. Individuals in the 

United States who are deaf, deafblind, 

hard of hearing, or have a speech 

disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or 

TeleBraille) to access 

telecommunications relay services. 

Individuals outside the United States 

should use the relay services offered 

within their country to make 

international calls to the point-ofcontact in the United States. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

current regulations describe how to 

conduct a natural resource damage 

assessment and restoration (NRDAR) for 

hazardous substance releases under the 

Comprehensive Environmental 

Response, Compensation, and Liability 

Act (42 U.S.C. 9601, 9607) (CERCLA) 

and the Federal Water Pollution Control 

Act (33 U.S.C. 1251, 1321) (Clean Water 

Act). CERCLA required the President to 

promulgate these regulations. 42 U.S.C. 

9651(c). The President delegated this 

rule writing responsibility to the 

Department of the Interior (DOI). E.O. 

12316, as amended by E.O. 12580. The 

regulations appear at 43 CFR part 11. 

A natural resource damage assessment 

is an evaluation of the need for, and the 

means of, securing restoration of public 

natural resources following the release 

of hazardous substances or oil into the 

environment. The Department of the 

Interior has previously developed two 

types of natural resource damage 

assessment regulations: Standard 

procedures for simplified assessments 

requiring minimal field observations 

(Type A Rule); and site-specific 

procedures for detailed assessments in 

individual cases (Type B Rule). The 

Type A Rule was last revised in 

November 1997. It provides two distinct 

formulas for modeling damages for 

natural resource injuries caused by 

hazardous substance releases to coastal 

and marine environments and Great 

Lakes environments, respectively. In 

accordance with the Comprehensive 

Environmental Response, 

Compensation, and Liability Act of 

1980, as amended (CERCLA) 42 U.S.C. 

9601 et seq., damages calculated in 

accordance with Type A or Type B 

procedures are entitled to a ‘‘rebuttable 

presumption’’ of correctness in any 

administrative or judicial proceeding. 

The rebuttable presumption for the 

Type A procedure under the current 

version of the rule is limited to damages 

of $100,000 or less. 

The regulations we are proposing to 

revise only cover natural resource 

damage assessments for releases of 

hazardous substances under CERCLA 

and the Clean Water Act. There are also 

natural resource damage assessment 

regulations at 15 CFR part 990 that 

cover oil spills under the Oil Pollution 

Act, 33 U.S.C. 2701, (the OPA 

regulations). The current hazardous 

substance natural resource damage 

assessment and restoration regulations, 

this preamble, and the proposed 

revisions to the regulation use 

‘‘restoration’’ as an umbrella term for all 

types of actions CERCLA and Clean 

Water Act authorize to address injured 

natural resources, including restoration, 

rehabilitation, replacement, or 

acquisition of equivalent resources. 

Natural resource damage assessments 

are conducted by government officials 

designated to act as ‘‘trustees’’ to bring 

claims on behalf of the public for the 

restoration of injured natural resources. 

Trustees are designated by the 

President, State governors, or Tribes. If 

trustees determine, through an 

assessment, that hazardous substance 

releases have injured natural resources, 

they may pursue claims for damages 

against potentially responsible parties. 

‘‘Damages’’ include funds needed to 

plan and implement restoration, 

compensation for public losses pending 

restoration, reasonable assessment costs, 

and any interest accruing after funds are 

due. 

The regulations establish an 

administrative process for conducting 

assessments that include technical 

criteria for determining whether releases 

have caused injury, and if so, what 

funds are needed to implement 

restoration. The regulations are for the 

optional use of trustees. Trustees can 

use the regulations to structure damage 

assessment work, frame negotiations, 

and inform restoration planning. If 

litigation is necessary to resolve the 

claim, courts will give additional 

deference—referred to as a ‘‘rebuttable 

presumption’’ in CERCLA—to 

assessments performed by Federal and 

State trustees in accord with the 

regulations. 

The Department is proposing to reformulate the Type A Rule as a 

procedural structure for negotiated 

settlements by utilizing tools tailored to 

incidents of smaller scale and scope. We 

believe that this aligns better with the 

original statutory purpose of providing 

a streamlined and simplified assessment 

process as a companion to the more 

complex Type B Rule—to reduce 

transaction costs and expedite 

restoration in a broader range of less 

complex and contentious cases. Our 

objective is to essentially formalize 

beneficial practices that have evolved 

since the 1997 promulgation of the Type 

A Rule. Specifically, Trustees have 

utilized well-established methodologies 

such as habitat equivalency analysis 

(HEA), resource equivalency analysis 

(REA), and other relatively simple 

models to assess natural resource injury 

in smaller incidents that do not 

necessarily warrant the more 

prescriptive Type B procedures. 

Our proposed revisions would largely 

leave the framework of the existing rule 

intact. We are not proposing any 

substantive changes to legal standards 

for reliability of assessment data and 

methodologies. We are soliciting 

comments only on the proposed 

revisions to the CERCLA Type A 

regulations. 

Before including your address, phone 

number, email address, or other 

personal identifying information in your 

comment, you should be aware that 

your entire comment—including your 

personal identifying information—may 

be made publicly available at any time. 

While you can ask us in your comment 

to withhold your personal identifying 

information from public review, we 

cannot guarantee that we will be able to 

do so. 

Joan M. Mooney, 

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, 

Exercising the Delegated Authority of the 

Assistant Secretary—Policy, Management 

and Budget. 

[FR Doc. 2024–02665 Filed 2–12–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4334–63–P 


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