Intent to Prepare Draft Restoration Plan and Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, Commencement Bay Restoration Plan, Pierce County, WA

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Corps of Engineers

Intent to Prepare Draft Restoration Plan and Programmatic

Environmental Impact Statement, Commencement Bay Restoration Plan,

Pierce County, WA

AGENCY: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DOD.

JOINT LEAD AGENCIES: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

(U.S. Department of Commerce), Fish and Wildlife Service (U.S.

Department of the Interior).

ACTION: Notice of Intent.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to Section 102(2)(c) of the National Environmental

Policy Act, 42 U.S.C. 4321-4370d (NEPA), the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service (Service) announce their intent to prepare a draft Restoration

Plan (RP) and a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for

the Commencement Bay Natural Resource Damage Assessment (CB/NRDA). NOAA

and the Service will be joint lead agencies for this RP/EIS.

DATES: The lead and cooperating agencies and tribes invite and

encourage agencies and the public to provide written comments on the

proposed RP/EIS throughout the scoping process to ensure that all

relevant environmental issues are considered. Persons or organizations

wishing to submit scoping comments should do so not later than October

14, 1994.

ADDRESSES: Written comments on the scope of the RP/EIS, questions about

the RP/EIS, requests for inclusion on the RP/EIS mailing list and

requests for copies of any documents associated with the draft RP/EIS

should be directed to: Commencement Bay EIS, CENPS-EN-PL-ER, U.S. Army

Corps of Engineers, P.O. Box 3755, Seattle, Washington, 98124-2255,

ATTN: Patrick Cagney.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Patrick Cagney, Seattle District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,

telephone (206) 764-3642; telafax: (206)764-4470.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

The CB/NRDA is being conducted by Federal and State agencies and

tribal governments identified as Natural Resource Trustees for the

Commencement Bay environment pursuant to the Comprehensive

Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, 42 U.S.C. 9601,

et seq. (CERCLA), the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, 33 U.S.C. 2701-2761

(OPA), and other applicable law. The Trustees will be developing a RP/

EIS to help guide restoration actions associated with the CB/NRDA. The

RP/EIS will develop a set of preferred restoration alternatives and a

restoration management plan and will evaluate the environmental impacts

of the proposed plan. The Programmatic EIS will also incorporate and

build upon existing information developed in the Commencement Bay

Cumulative Impact Study (CG/CIS) (published 6/93) and information and

policies developed through the CB/NRDA restoration planning process.

While this RP/EIS will be a document prepared under NEPA guidelines, it

is anticipated that the RP/EIS will also meet the requirements of the

Washington State Environmental Policy Act, Chapter 43.21C RCW (SEPA).

The goal of the RP/EIS is to develop a restoration management plan

that will benefit the natural resources of Commencement Bay that have

been injured as a result of the release of hazardous substances or the

discharge of oil. There are two objectives associated with this goal

that will help address the injured trust resources. The first is to

provide within the immediate Commencement Bay environment a diversity

of sustainable habitat types using a landscape perspective to directly

benefit the injured resources. The second objective, within the larger

study area, is to provide additional alternative resource and habitat

restoration or replacement opportunities, or to acquire the equivalent

of the affected resources or habitats for those injured resources that

will require additional efforts to achieve or promote restoration.

Because the planning, selection, design, construction, monitoring and

funding of specific restoration measures will unfold over a period of

many years, a tiered EIS process has been selected for environmental

compliance.

Alternatives

A preliminary list of alternatives is being developed and will be

described in initial scoping documents sent to all agencies,

organizations, and individuals on the RP/EIS mailing list, along with a

listing of significant issues identified by agencies and public

comment. The scoping document will include a brief discussion regarding

the basis for the study, information concerning the alternative areas

evaluated for restoration, restoration alternative strategies, and the

programmatic nature of the study at each of the alternative areas. This

information would be supplemented with graphics delineating the areas

of interest and alternative configurations.

EIS Content

The draft RP/EIS will document restoration planning at a

programmatic level consistent with the results of scoping. Restoration

planning will focus upon the ``key resources'' identified through the

CG/NRDA process as having been injured due to releases of hazardous

substances or discharges of oil. Beginning with the information

developed through the CB/NRDA restoration planning process and the CB/

CIS, the draft RP/EIS will identify habitat types and functions

significant for important life stages of one or more groups of key

resources or of representative individual key resource species.

The RP/EIS will effectively serve as a menu of restoration

alternatives to function as a framework for managing the Commencement

Bay NRDA Restoration Program.

The Alternative section will be based on the following:

--Alternatives (includes discussion and establishment of the baseline

condition, and not action).

--Types of restoration.

--Alternative sites (characteristics/constraints).

--Alternative restoration scenarios (putting alternative types together

with alternative sites).

The RP/EIS will also include other elements and address other

concerns as needed to complete a fully responsive NEPA and SEPA

document. The format recommended by CEQ regulations (40 CFR 1502.10 et

seq. and SEPA Rules (WAC 197-11-430) will be followed as appropriate.

Cooperating Agencies

Several agencies have been identified as cooperating agencies. They

are: The Puyallup Tribe of Indians, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, the

Washington Department of Ecology, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and

the Environmental Protection Agency. The Seattle District Corps of

Engineers has been designated by the lead agencies as the primary agent

for preparing the RP/EIS.

Study Area

The study area for the RP/EIS includes Commencement Bay (that

portion of Puget Sound enclosed within a line extending from Brown's

Point to Point Defiance); the watershed of Commencement Bay and its

main tributaries (the Puyallup/Carbon River, the White River, Hylebos

Creek, Wapato Creek, Puget Creek); and Puget Sound coastal areas

adjacent to Commencement Bay (southern Vashon and Maury Islands, Dumas

Bay). Within the study area, the RP/EIS will focus on those areas that

serve as habitat for or otherwise support the natural resources of

Commencement Bay potentially injured as a result of releases of CERCLA

hazardous substances and discharges of oil.

Request for Comments

Your views as to the scope and content of the environmental

information needed for the RP/EIS are important to the preparation of

the study report. To be most helpful, the scoping comments should

clearly describe specific environmental issues or topics which the

commenter believes the document should address. This Notice of Intent

will be mailed to Federal, state, and local agencies, organizations,

groups and individuals identified during the CB/NRDA process.

Scoping meetings will be scheduled to provide the public with an

opportunity to engage in discussions regarding the RP/EIS. The times

and locations of the scoping meetings will be announced at a later

date. Notices will be sent to all agencies, organizations, and

individuals on the RP/EIS mailing list.

The lead agencies expect to complete preparation of the draft RP/

EIS and have review copies of it available by March 1995.

Kenneth L. Denton,

Army Federal Register Liaison Officer.

[FR Doc. 94-21320 Filed 8-29-94; 8:45 am]

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