October 7, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document provides notice that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) intends to prepare a Resource Management Plan (RMP) amendment to address offering the sale of public land within Mineral County, Nevada not currently identified for disposal.

Under Section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (NEPA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Kemmerer Field Office, announces its intent to prepare an EIS on the potential impacts of a proposed natural gas development project consisting primarily of conventional gas well development, in the Moxa Arch area, Wyoming. The proposed additional wells would fill in or ``infill'' among existing wells drilled and developed under the Expanded Moxa Arch Area Natural Gas Development Project EIS and Record of Decision (ROD) (1997). Drilling is proposed to occur over a 10-year period and the life- of-project is anticipated to be 40 years. The project area is located west of Green River, east of Lyman and Opal, and south of the Fontenelle Reservoir.

We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has prepared an environmental assessment for a field trial of genetically engineered strains of an endophytic fungus of perennial ryegrass, Neotyphodium sp. isolate Lp1. The fungi have been genetically engineered to disrupt the ergovaline synthesis pathway. The environmental assessment provides a basis for our conclusion that these field tests will not present a risk of introducing or disseminating a plant pest and will not have a significant impact on the quality of the human environment. Based on its finding of no significant impact, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has determined that an environmental impact statement need not be prepared for these field tests.

The Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP), National Institute of Corrections (NIC), is seeking applications to award a cooperative agreement for the production of satellite/Internet broadcasts. The cooperative agreement will be for a two-year period, but an award will be made for each of the two years contingent on the availability of funding for each fiscal year (e.g., FY 2006 and FY 2007.) Year 1 will consist of the following nine programs: Five of the proposed programs are nationwide satellite/ Internet broadcasts (three hours each.) The other four are satellite/ Internet Training Programs. Two of the four are ``site coordinator/ facilitator training'' (Training for Trainers) sessions consisting of eight hours of satellite/Internet training divided over two days. The remaining two training programs are 32-hour content-driven training programs. For each 32-hour program, there will be 16 hours of live broadcast satellite/Internet training over four days (supplemented by 16 hours of off-air activities directed by our trained site coordinators.) There will be a total of 63 hours of broadcast time in FY 2006. Approximately 3 months before awarding Year 2, and based on satisfactory performance during Year 1, the awardee will receive information about the amount of the award and the scope of work (which will require approximately the same type of support for 9 to 11 programs consisting of 70 to 82 hours of broadcast time.) Based on this information the awardee will be required to submit another application explaining how the work will be accomplished.

Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act 102(2) of 1969, the Bureau of Reclamation has prepared a FEIS for the Humboldt Project Conveyance, Pershing, Churchill, and Lander Counties, Nevada. The FEIS assesses the impacts of conveying title of the Humboldt Project (Project) and associated lands to the Pershing County Water Conservation District (PCWCD), State of Nevada, Lander County and Pershing County. The action is needed to comply with Title VIII of Pub. L. 107-282 which directs Reclamation to transfer title of the Project to the entities listed above.

This document supplements the Notice of Interim Operating Authority (IOA) Granted to Commercial Air Tour Operators Over National Parks and Tribal Lands Within or Abutting National Parks, which was published in the Federal Register on Thursday, June 23, 2005, (70 FR 36456). The June 23rd notice informs the public and seeks comment on operators who have received IOA and the number of allocations for each operator on a per park basis. This supplemental notice informs the public when comments to the June 23rd notice are due and republishes the IOA by park instead of by operator.

This notice of policy announces the FAA's policy concerning current exemptions from the Mode S transponder equipment requirements under Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations Sec. Sec. 121.345(c) and 135.143(c). Additionally, this notice of policy seeks comments from persons currently holding an exemption from the above regulations on a proposed date for which they must comply with the equipment requirements.

On October 23, 2002, the FAA published a Notice of Intent to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority's (OSIDA's) proposal to operate a commercial launch site at the Clinton-Sherman Industrial Airpark (CSIA) in the Federal Register (67 FR 65169). The original proposed action included horizontal and vertical launches, significant construction activities, orbital launches, and vehicle manufacturing. The nature of these activities necessitated that the proposed action be addressed through the preparation of an EIS. Subsequent changes to the proposed action have eliminated the need for vertical launch, construction of any kind, orbital launches, and vehicle manufacturing. The proposed action as currently stated involves the horizontal launch of suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicles from an existing runway at the CSIA. The horizontal launch activities are similar to the current Air Force activities at the CSIA and are not expected to produce significant impacts, indicating that an EA would be the most appropriate NEPA analysis for OSIDA's proposed activities. Scoping meetings were held in Oklahoma in November 2002. Because the proposed action is a subset of the information originally presented during scoping, we do not propose to re-initiate scoping meetings. For the reasons stated above, the FAA is canceling the EIS and will prepare an Environmental Assessment to analyze the impacts of the proposed action.

The FAA invites public comments about our intention to request the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval for a new information collection. Information to be collected supports FAA in determining the amount of required liability insurance for a reentry operator after examining the risk associated with a reentry vehicle, its operational capabilities, and its designated reentry site.

Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) regulations require covered federal contractors and subcontractors to collect information about the gender, race and ethnicity of each ``applicant'' for employment. The final rule published today modifies OFCCP applicant recordkeeping requirements to address challenges presented by the use of the Internet and electronic data technologies in contractors' recruiting and hiring processes. The final rule is intended to address recordkeeping requirements regarding ``Internet Applicants'' under all OFCCP recordkeeping and data collection requirements.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will file the plat of survey of the lands described below in the BLM-Eastern States, Springfield, Virginia, 30 calendar days from the date of publication in the Federal Register.

Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Bureau of Reclamation proposes to prepare an EIS for the Shasta Lake Water Resources Investigation (SLWRI). Authorization for the investigation comes from Pub. L. 96-375, 1980; which directs the Secretary of the Interior to engage in feasibility studies related to enlarging Shasta Dam and Reservoir. Other directing legislation includes Title 34 of Pub. L. 102-575, the Central Valley Project Improvement Act and Pub. L. 108-137, the Energy and Water Development Act. In addition, enlargement of Shasta Dam was identified in the CALFED Programmatic Environmental Impact Report/Statement and Record of Decision (ROD) and in Pub. L. 108-361, the CALFED Bay-Delta authority.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposes to amend regulations published in the Federal Register on Friday, June 30, 2000 (65 FR 40953). The existing regulations allowed certain Alaska Native veterans another opportunity to apply for a Native allotment under the repealed Native Allotment Act of 1906. This proposed rulemaking would delete the requirement that veteran applicants must post the land by marking all corners of the ground with their name and address prior to filing an application with the BLM. Enforcement of the posting rule for allotments adjudicated under the 1906 Act was previously waived by an Assistant Secretary. Therefore, the posting requirement is deemed unnecessary for Native veteran allotment cases.

Under the provisions of 30 U.S.C. 188(d) and (e), and 43 CFR 3108.2-3(a) and (b)(1), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) received a petition for reinstatement of oil and gas lease WYW136681 from Redstone Resources, Inc., Preston Reynolds & Co., Inc., and CH4 Energy, LLC for lands in Campbell County, Wyoming. The petition was filed on time and was accompanied by all the rentals due since the date the lease terminated under the law.