24604 Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 89 / Tuesday, May 9, 1995 / Proposed Rules

* * * * *

3. Section ll.24(a)(1) is proposed to

be amended in the table under ‘‘Area,’’

‘‘Species,’’ and ‘‘Determination’’ by

removing the seven entries for ‘‘GMU

15’’ for ‘‘Brown Bear,’’ ‘‘Sheep,’’

‘‘Moose,’’ and ‘‘Goat’’ and adding the

following new entries in their place to

read as follows:

* * * * *

(a) * * *

(1) * * *

Area Species Determination

* * * * * * *

GMU 15 (A)

and (B).

Black Bear ................................................................................... Residents of Hope, Cooper Landing, and Ninilchik.

15(C) ............ Black Bear ................................................................................... Residents of Ninilchik, Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Seldovia.

15 (A) and

(B).

Brown Bear ................................................................................. No subsistence.

15(C) ............ Brown Bear ................................................................................. Residents of Ninilchik, Nanwalek, and Port Graham.

15(A) ............. Caribou ........................................................................................ Residents of Hope, Cooper Landing, and Ninilchik.

15(B) ............. Caribou ........................................................................................ Residents of Ninilchik.

15(C) ............ Caribou ........................................................................................ Residents of Ninilchik, Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Seldovia.

15(A) ............. Goat ............................................................................................ No subsistence.

15(B) ............. Goat ............................................................................................ Residents of Cooper Landing and Ninilchik.

15(C) ............ Goat ............................................................................................ Residents of Ninilchik, Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Seldovia.

* * * * * * *

15(A) ............. Sheep .......................................................................................... Residents of Cooper Landing.

15(B) ............. Sheep .......................................................................................... Residents of Cooper Landing and Ninilchik.

15(C) ............ Sheep .......................................................................................... Residents of Ninilchik, Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Seldovia.

15(A) ............. Moose ......................................................................................... Residents of Hope, Cooper Landing, Ninilchik, and Seldovia.

15(B) ............. Moose ......................................................................................... Residents of Hope, Cooper Landing, Ninilchik, Seldovia,

Nanwalek, and Port Graham.

15(C) ............ Moose ......................................................................................... Residents of Ninilchik, Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Seldovia.

* * * * * * *

* * * * *

4. Section ll.25(k)(15)(iii)(D) is

proposed to be amended in the table

under ‘‘Hunting’’ by adding an entry for

‘‘Moose’’ in alphabetical order to read as

follows:

§ ll.25 Subsistence taking of

wildlife.

* * * * *

(k) * * *

(15) * * *

(iii) * * *

(D) * * *

Harvest limits Open season

Hunting:

* * * * * * *

Moose:

Unit 15—1 antlered bull with spike-fork or 50-inch antlers or with 3 or more brow tines on either antler, by

Federal registration permit only.

Aug. 10–Sept. 20.

* * * * * * *

* * * * *

Dated: April 27, 1995.

Mitch Demientieff,

Chair, Federal Subsistence Board.

Dated: April 26, 1995.

Fred Norbury,

Acting Regional Forester, USDA—Forest

Service.

[FR Doc. 95–11319 Filed 5–8–95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3410–11–M; 4310–55–M

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Office of the Secretary

43 CFR Part 11

RIN 1090–AA51

Natural Resource Damage

Assessments—Additional Type A

Procedures

AGENCY: Department of the Interior.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

SUMMARY: The Department of the

Interior is holding a public meeting to

discuss development of additional ‘‘type

A’’ procedures for assessing natural

resource damages under the

Comprehensive Environmental

Response, Compensation, and Liability

Act and the Clean Water Act. The

Department is responsible for issuing

regulations that Federal, State, and

Indian tribe natural resource trustees

may use to obtain compensation from

parties responsible for natural resource

injuries. Type A procedures are

standard procedures for simplified

assessments requiring minimal field

observation.

DATES: June 1, 1995, from 1:00 to 4:00

p.m.
Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 89 / Tuesday, May 9, 1995 / Proposed Rules 24605

ADDRESSES: U.S. Department of the

Interior, South Building, Auditorium,

1951 Constitution Avenue, NW,

Washington, D.C.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mary Morton, Office of Environmental

Policy and Compliance, Department of

the Interior, MS 2340, 1849 C Street,

NW, Washington, DC 20240, (202), tel:

208–3301 or MMORTON@IOS.DOI.GOV

on Internet.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The

Comprehensive Environmental

Response, Compensation, and Liability

Act (CERCLA) makes certain potentially

responsible parties (PRPs) liable for

monetary damages resulting from injury

to, destruction of, or loss of natural

resources caused by a release of a

hazardous substance. 42 U.S.C.

9607(a)(4)(C). Only designated Federal,

State, and Indian tribe natural resource

trustees may recover natural resource

damages. Damages may be recovered for

those natural resource injuries that are

not fully remedied by response actions

as well as public economic values lost

from the date of the release until the

resources have fully recovered. All sums

recovered in compensation for natural

resource injuries must be used to

restore, rehabilitate, replace, or acquire

the equivalent of the injured natural

resources. 42 U.S.C. 9607(f)(1). Trustee

officials may also recover the reasonable

costs of assessing natural resource

damages.

CERCLA requires the promulgation of

regulations for the assessment of natural

resource damages resulting from a

release of a hazardous substance. 42

U.S.C. 9651(c). The regulations are to

identify:

The best available procedures to determine

such damages, including both direct and

indirect injury, destruction, or loss and shall

take into consideration factors including, but

not limited to, replacement value, use value,

and ability of the ecosystem or resource to

recover. 42 U.S.C. 9651(c).

Those Federal and State trustee officials

who follow the regulations and then file

a lawsuit or pursue available

administrative remedies to recover

natural resource damages receive a

rebuttable presumption that their

assessment and determination of

damages is correct. 42 U.S.C.

9607(f)(2)(C). The Department of the

Interior (the Department) has the

delegated authority to promulgate the

natural resource damage assessment

regulations under CERCLA. E.O. 12316,

as amended by E.O. 12580.

The Clean Water Act (CWA) created

liability for natural resource damages

resulting from discharges of oil or

hazardous substances into navigable

waters. 33 U.S.C. 1321(f). The

Department’s natural resource damage

assessment regulations were developed

for use in assessing damages either from

a hazardous substance release under

CERCLA or an oil or hazardous

substance discharge under CWA. The

natural resource damage provisions of

CWA were amended by the Oil

Pollution Act (OPA). 33 U.S.C. 2701 et

seq. OPA authorized the National

Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA) to develop new

natural resource damage assessment

regulations for discharges of oil into

navigable waters. On January 7, 1994,

NOAA published a proposed rule for

assessing natural resource damages

under OPA. 59 FR 1062. The

Department is coordinating its

rulemakings with NOAA to ensure, to

the extent appropriate, that consistent

processes are established for assessing

natural resource damages under

CERCLA and OPA.

The Department’s natural resource

damage assessment regulations are

codified in the Code of Federal

Regulations at 43 CFR part 11 (1994).

The regulations provide an

administrative process for conducting

assessments as well as technical

procedures for the actual determination

of injuries and damages. The

administrative process consists of four

phases: The Preassessment Phase, the

Assessment Plan Phase, the Assessment

Phase, and the Post-Assessment Phase.

The Preassessment Phase consists of

the activities that precede the actual

assessment, including guidance for

deciding whether to proceed with an

assessment. The Assessment Plan Phase

includes the preparation of a written

Assessment Plan, which is made

available for public review and

comment. During the Assessment Phase,

trustee officials conduct the work

described in the Assessment Plan. The

work involves determining whether any

natural resources have been injured;

quantifying the natural resource

injuries; and computing monetary

damages for the quantified injuries.

During the Post-Assessment Phase,

trustee officials prepare a Report of

Assessment detailing the results of the

Assessment Phase and present PRPs

with a demand for monetary damages

and assessment costs. CERCLA requires

that all sums recovered in compensation

for natural resource injuries be used to

restore, rehabilitate, replace, or acquire

the equivalent of the injured natural

resources. 42 U.S.C. 9607(f)(1).

Therefore, once damages have been

awarded or settlement has been reached,

trustee officials establish an account for

the recovered damages and prepare a

Restoration Plan for use of the recovered

damages.

As required by CERCLA, the

regulations provide two types of

technical procedures for use during the

Assessment Phase. See 42 U.S.C.

9651(c)(2). ‘‘Type B’’ procedures are

‘‘alternative protocols for conducting

assessments in individual cases.’’ 42

U.S.C. 9651(c)(2)(B). The regulations

provide a range of alternative type B

scientific and economic methodologies

that trustee officials may apply on a sitespecific basis to determine and quantify

injury and compute damages. ‘‘Type A’’

procedures, on the other hand, are

‘‘standard procedures for simplified

assessments requiring minimal field

observation, including measures of

damages based on units of discharge or

release or units of affected area.’’ 42

U.S.C. 9651(c)(2)(A).

The Department is developing type A

procedures in stages. In 1987, the

Department issued a type A procedure

for minor discharges and releases in

coastal and marine environments that

incorporated a computer model, called

the Natural Resource Damage

Assessment Model for Coastal and

Marine Environments (NRDAM/CME).

52 FR 9042. The Department has issued

a proposed rule to revise the type A

procedure for coastal and marine

environments. See 59 FR 63300 (Dec. 8,

1994). The Department also recently

published a proposed rule that would

establish an additional type A

procedure for minor discharges and

releases in the Great Lakes. 59 FR 40319

(Aug. 8, 1994). The proposed type A

procedure for Great Lakes incorporates

a computer model called the Natural

Resource Damage Assessment Model for

Great Lakes Environments (NRDAM/

GLE). The comment periods on these

two proposed type A procedures close

on July 6, 1995. 60 FR 7154 (Feb. 6,

1995).

The Department is now preparing to

develop, where feasible and

appropriate, additional type A

procedures and has scheduled a public

meeting to discuss the possible scope

and form of those procedures as well as

alternative processes for developing the

procedures. All interested parties are

encouraged to attend. The Department

intends the meeting as an open

discussion at which attendees will be

given the opportunity both to present

their own thoughts as well as ask

questions of and respond to other

attendees.

Attendees are invited to raise any

issue related to additional type A

procedures. As a starting point,

attendees should consider the questions

listed below.
24606 Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 89 / Tuesday, May 9, 1995 / Proposed Rules

With regard to the scope of additional

type A procedures:

Should the procedures cover a

specific geographic area?

Should the procedures cover selected

types of habitat?

Should the procedures cover selected

types of resources?

Should the procedures cover selected

types of releases (e.g., spills versus

leachate from sites)?

Should the procedures cover selected

hazardous substances?

Should the procedures cover all steps

of the Assessment Phase or simply

certain parts (e.g., injury determination

or damage determination but not both)?

For which geographic regions,

habitats, resources, types of releases,

hazardous substances, or steps of the

Assessment Phase are there adequate

data with which to develop a type A

procedure?

With regard to the form of additional

type A procedures:

Should the Department develop

additional computer models or should

any additional type A procedures take a

different form, such as a look-up table,

a formula, or a model assessment or

restoration plan?

Which form would be easiest to use?

Which form would be most useful in

settlement negotiations?

Which form would be most useful in

litigation?

With regard to the process for

developing additional type A

procedures:

Should the Department hold

additional public meetings?

Should the Department hold meetings

with specific interested parties?

Should the Department conduct a

negotiated rulemaking?

Should the Department issue advance

notices of proposed rulemaking

soliciting comment on particular aspects

of the procedures prior to issuing a

proposed rule?

Dated: May 4, 1995.

Willie R. Taylor,

Director, Office of Environmental Policy and

Compliance.

[FR Doc. 95–11378 Filed 5–8–95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–RG–P

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS

COMMISSION

47 CFR PART 73

[MM Docket No. 95–42, FCC 95–155]

TV Broadcast Service, Ancillary

Communications Services

AGENCY: Federal Communications

Commission.

ACTION: Proposed rule.

SUMMARY: In this proceeding, comment

is sought on what procedural and

substantive rules, if any, should be

established regarding the transmission

of ancillary digital data within the

active video portion of broadcast

television NTSC signals. This action is

needed to determine how best to permit

certain digital technologies to be

integrated with the current television

broadcast service (NTSC).

DATES: Comments must be submitted by

June 23, 1995. Reply comments must be

submitted July 10, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Federal Communications

Commission, Washington, DC 20554.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Paul Gordon at (202) 776–1653 or James

E. McNally, Jr. at (202) 418–2190.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a

synopsis of the Commission’s Notice of

Proposed Rule Making in MM Docket

No. 95–42, adopted April 10, 1995, and

released May 2, 1995. The complete text

of this Notice of Proposed Rule Making

(‘‘NPRM’’) is available for inspection

and copying during normal business

hours in the FCC Reference Center

(Room 239), 1919 M St., NW.,

Washington, DC and also may be

purchased from the Commission’s copy

contractor, International Transcription

Service, at (202) 857–3800, 2100 M

Street NW., Suite 140, Washington, DC

20037.

Synopsis of Notice of Proposed Rule

Making

1. The Commission initiates this

proceeding to determine how best to

permit certain digital technologies to be

integrated with the current television

broadcast service (NTSC). Specifically,

it seeks comment on what procedural

and substantive rules, if any, should be

established regarding the transmission

of ancillary digital data within the

active video portion of broadcast

television NTSC signals.

2. Section 73.646 of the Commission’s

Rules allows the transmission, with

prior Commission consent, of ancillary

telecommunications services within the

Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) of

television broadcast signals. No picture

information is transmitted during the

VBI. In order to ensure the public’s

ability to receive over-the-air video

broadcast transmissions of the highest

quality made possible by the current

television standard, the Commission has

generally not allowed the transmission

of ancillary telecommunications

services within the active video portion

of broadcast television signals without

specific approval.

3. Recently, two general approaches

have been proposed to the Commission

for the transmission of digital data. The

first replaces the transmitted video

signal with digitally encoded

information in a part of the picture not

normally seen by viewers because all

TV sets to some extent ‘‘overscan’’ the

picture to ensure that the portion of the

picture tube that is visible is completely

filled with the picture. To date, the

Commission has authorized only the top

line of the video picture (line 22) for

such activity, although in theory, digital

signals also could be concealed in the

left or right edges of the picture, or at

the bottom. The second method of

concealing digital signals distributes

them throughout the visible picture The

amplitudes of such signals are kept

sufficiently low (or they are confined to

such a limited part of the normally

emitted video spectrum bandwidth) that

they are invisible to the viewer. Tests of

such systems indicate that, with a

proper selection of system parameters,

no degradation to picture brightness,

contrast, color or focus is perceptible to

the viewer.

4. On December 9, 1993, WavePhore,

Inc. (WavePhore) requested a

declaratory ruling that television

broadcast licensees may, without prior

Commission authorization, use

WavePhore’s ‘‘TVT1’’ system to transmit

digital data signals. This system

transmits digital data on a subcarrier

within the standard 6.0 MHz NTSC

television signal, between 3.9 HNz and

4.2 MHz above the visual carrier

frequency, at an amplitude close to the

video noise floor.

5. On November 22, 1989, the staff

granted A. C. Nielsen Company

(‘‘Nielsen’’) temporary, conditional

authority to use line 22 of the active

portion of the television video signal to

transmit the Nielsen Automated

Measurement of Lineup (‘‘AMOL’’)

system signal identification codes. By a

subsequent letter dated May 1, 1990, the

temporary authority as extended until

the Commission acts on the request for

permanent authority, or until the

temporary authority is expressly

withdrawn.

6. As a result of the difficulties

encountered in obtaining assurance that

its system for identifying commercials

would not be overwritten (and thus be

rendered useless) by Nielsen’s AMOL

system, Airtrax filed a petition for rule

making (RM–7567), which requested the

Commission to set standard for ‘‘special

signal’’ use of line 22. As justification

for the rule making, Airtrax noted what

even with the limited number of special

signals currently authorized, disputes

had arisen as to how to ensure