Natural Resource Damage Assessments: Type A Procedure for Great Lakes Environments

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Office of the Secretary

43 CFR Part 11

RIN 1090-AA21

Natural Resource Damage Assessments: Type A Procedure for Great

Lakes Environments

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Interior.

ACTION: Proposed rule; extension of comment period.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: On August 8, 1994, the Department of the Interior issued a

notice of proposed rulemaking (59 FR 40319) to revise the natural

resource damage assessment regulations. The natural resource damage

assessment regulations establish procedures for assessing damages for

injury to natural resources resulting from a discharge of oil into

navigable waters under the Clean Water Act, or a release of a hazardous

substance under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation,

and Liability Act. The August 8, 1994 proposed rule describes a

procedure for simplified assessments for relatively minor discharges or

releases in Great Lakes environments. The Department is extending the

period for comment on the proposed rule and soliciting comment on an

additional aspect of the type A procedure.

DATES: Comments will be accepted through February 6, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent in duplicate to the Office of

Environmental Policy and Compliance, Attn: NRDA Rule--GLE, Room 2340,

Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, DC 20240

(regular business hours 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Monday through Friday).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephen F. Specht at (202) 208-3301,

or [email protected] on Internet.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The natural resource damage assessment

regulations establish procedures that Federal, State, and Tribal

natural resource trustees may use to obtain compensation from liable

parties for natural resource injuries under the Comprehensive

Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, as amended (42

U.S.C. 9601 et seq.) and the Clean Water Act, as amended (33 U.S.C.

1251 et seq.). The regulations provide an administrative process for

conducting assessments as well as two types of technical procedures for

the actual determination of injuries and damages. ``Type A'' procedures

are standard procedures for simplified assessments requiring minimal

field observation in cases of minor discharges or releases in certain

environments. ``Type B'' procedures are site-specific procedures for

detailed assessments in other cases.

On August 8, 1994, the Department of the Interior published a

proposed rule to amend the regulations to include an additional type A

procedure for assessing natural resource damages in Great Lakes

environments. The proposed procedure incorporates a computer model

called the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Model for Great Lakes

Environments Version 1.31 (NRDAM/GLE).

The comment period on the August 8, 1994, proposed rule was

originally set to close on November 7, 1994. The Department has

received numerous requests for additional time to comment on the

proposed rule. The requesters have emphasized the large volume of

technical documentation accompanying the NRDAM/GLE, all of which is

subject to public review and comment. Some requesters are assembling

multidisciplinary teams to assist in the review of the model and

associated databases. The Department appreciates the level of technical

review that is underway and is therefore extending the comment period

by 90 days.

The Department also solicits comment on an additional aspect of the

proposed type A procedure for Great Lakes environments. The proposed

NRDAM/GLE is supported by a geographic information system (GIS) that

supplies geographically distributed information to the submodels. The

submodels divide the Great Lakes into a series of rectangular grids.

The proposed NRDAM/GLE assigns a habitat type to each cell within the

grids. Under the August 8, 1994 proposed rule, trustee officials would

not be allowed to modify the habitat designations in the final version

of the model if they wished to obtain a rebuttable presumption for

their assessments. The Department specifically requested commenters to

review the habitat designations and provide information about possible

revisions that should be made in the final version of the model. 59 FR

40330.

The Department remains committed to ensuring that the final version

of the NRDAM/GLE reflects the most accurate habitat information

available. However, the Department is now soliciting comment on whether

to revise the rule to allow trustee officials to modify the habitat

designations in the final version of the NRDAM/GLE and still obtain a

rebuttable presumption. Allowing trustee officials to modify the

habitat designations might enable fine-tuning of the model to better

reflect reality. On the other hand, type A procedures are designed to

simplify assessments, reduce fieldwork, and narrow the potential areas

of dispute. Providing an option to modify the habitat designations

could undermine these goals. Therefore, the Department solicits comment

on whether the final rule should allow trustee officials to modify the

habitat designations and, if so, under what conditions.

Dated: October 28, 1994.

Theresa Trujeque,

Acting Assistant Secretary--Policy, Management, and Budget.

[FR Doc. 94-27225 Filed 11-1-94; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310-RG-P-M