Notice of Availability, Oil Spill Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

Notice of Availability, Oil Spill Restoration Plan and

Environmental Assessment

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: The Fish and Wildlife Service, on behalf of the Department of

the Interior, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

(Administration), the State of Washington, and the Makah Tribe,

announces the release for public review of a Revised Draft Restoration

Plan and Environmental Assessment for the Tenyo Maru Oil Spill (Plan/

Assessment). The Plan/Assessment covers the Natural Resource Trustees'

(Trustees) proposal to restore natural resources injured as a result of

the 1991 Tenyo Maru fishing vessel oil spill.

DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before February 7,

2000.

ADDRESSES: Requests for copies of the Plan/Assessment may be made to:

Fish and Wildlife Service, 510 Desmond Drive SE, Suite 102, Lacey,

Washington 98503, Attn: Cindy M. Chaffee. The Plan/Assessment is also

available for download at http://www.r1.fws.gov. and http://

www.darcnw.noaa.gov/tenyo.htm. Written comments regarding the Plan/

Assessment should be sent to the same mailing address as requests for

copies of the Plan/Assessment.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cindy M. Chaffee, Fish and Wildlife

Service, 510 Desmond Drive SE, Suite 102, Lacey, Washington 98503.

Interested parties may also call (360) 753-4324.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On July 22, 1991, a Japanese fishing vessel

(Tenyo Maru) and a Chinese freighter (Tuo Hai) collided about 20 miles

northwest of Neah Bay, Washington, spilling at least 100,000 gallons of

oil. Beaches were fouled with oil from Vancouver Island, British

Columbia to northern Oregon. While impacts were scattered along the

entire Washington State shoreline and the northern beaches of Oregon,

the heaviest oiling occurred along the Makah Indian Reservation and the

Olympic National Park shoreline. Seabirds, and to a lesser extent, kelp

habitats, were demonstrated to have been injured by the spill. The

trustees documented that common murres (Uria aalge) and federally

threatened marbled murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) were killed, as

well as rhinoceros auklets (Cerorhinca moncerata), tufted puffins

(Fratercula cirrhata), Cassin's auklets (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) and

pigeon guillemots (Cepphus columba). Oil was observed in many of the

giant kelp (Macrocystis) and bull kelp (Nereocystis) dominated kelp

beds from Cape Alava north to Tatoosh Island and from Tatoosh Island

east to Waadah Island.

Claims for natural resource damages were settled by consent decree

under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (Act), 33 U.S.C. 2701 et seq..

Under the consent decree, the defendants agreed to pay approximately

$5.2 million to the natural resource trustees to compensate the public

for the injury, destruction, and loss of natural resources resulting

from the spill.

On February 10, 1999, the Trustees published a Notice of

Availability for a draft Plan/Assessment. The Trustees received

numerous comments on this draft Plan/Assessment. In response to those

comments, the Trustees have made several changes to the Plan/

Assessment. These changes include: (1) The addition of funding for an

emergency towing vessel stationed at the entrance to the Strait of Juan

de Fuca; (2) an option to consider a project involving restoration of

tufted puffins; and (3) elimination of the Seabird By-Catch Reduction

in Coastal Net Fisheries Project. In order to help focus public review,

the revised Plan/Assessment includes the highlighting of additional

language and strike-out lines where language has been removed from the

draft Plan/Assessment published last February.

The Plan/Assessment is presented to the public by the Trustees

responsible for restoration implementation under the consent decree and

is consistent with the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Regulations

found at 15 CFR, Part 990. The Plan/Assessment describes the affected

environment and illustrates potential restoration alternatives to

restore, rehabilitate, replace, or acquire the equivalent of natural

resources injured in the Tenyo Maru oil spill and their environmental

consequences.

The preferred restoration alternative selected by the Trustees is

an integrative restoration approach that restores populations of

injured resources, provides quality habitat, and allows natural

recovery. Proposed restoration efforts will include the combination of

protection and enhancement activities that have the greatest potential

to restore the injured natural resources, with particular emphasis on

seabirds. The Plan/Assessment proposes to restore injured resources by:

(1) Restoring common murre or potentially, tufted puffin colonies

within the Copalis National Wildlife Refuge; (2) contributing to an

oiled wildlife rehabilitation center; (3) educating the public on the

negative impacts caused by human disturbance of nesting seabird

colonies; (4) protecting injured natural resources from further impacts

of oil spills; (5) protecting marbled murrelet habitat; and (6)

reducing siltation in rivers to aid salmon recovery.

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Interested members of the public are invited to review and comment

on the Plan/Assessment. Copies of the plan are available for review at

the Fish and Wildlife Service's Western Washington Office in Lacey,

Washington (510 Desmond Drive SE, Suite 102); the Olympic Coast

National Marine Sanctuary in Port Angeles, Washington (Federal

Building, 138 West 1st Street, Suite 7) and; the Makah Tribe at Neah

Bay, Washington (Old Air Force Building #15). Additionally the Plan/

Assessment will be available for review at the Fish and Wildlife

Service's web site http://www.r1.fws.gov, at Administration's web site

http://www.darcnw.noaa.gov/tenyo.htm, and at public libraries in

Clallam, Jefferson, Grays Harbor, and Pacific Counties.

Written comments will be considered and addressed in the final

Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment at the conclusion of the

restoration planning process.

Dated: January 3, 2000.

Thomas Dwyer,

Acting Regional Director, Region 1, Portland, Oregon.

[FR Doc. 00-334 Filed 1-6-00; 8:45 am]

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