December 15, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The proposed information collection requirement described below has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal. Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian colleges and universities apply for competitive grants to undertake Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)-eligible activities to expand their role helping their communities with neighborhood revitalization, housing, and economic development.

This is a notice of an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) declaration for the State of South Carolina, dated 12/08/2006. Incident: Fire. Incident Period: 06/06/2006. Effective Date: 12/08/2006. EIDL Loan Application Deadline Date: 09/10/2007. Addresses: Submit completed loan applications to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, Tx 76155.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is providing interested persons with the opportunity to submit written comments concerning recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO) to impose international manufacturing and distributing restrictions, under international treaties, on certain drug substances. The comments received in response to this notice will be considered in preparing the U.S. position on these proposals for a meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna, Austria, March 12 to 16, 2007. This notice is issued under the Controlled Substances Act.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announces it is considering whether to amend its financial responsibility requirements for motor carriers in response to two petitions for rulemaking. The Government of Canada (Canada) petitioned FMCSA to amend these requirements to permit, as acceptable evidence of financial responsibility, a policy of insurance issued by a Canadian insurance company legally authorized to issue such policies in the Province or Territory of Canada where the motor carrier has its principal place of business. Canada believes the FMCSA's current regulations place Canada-domiciled motor carriers operating in the United States at a competitive disadvantage with U.S.-domiciled carriers. The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) petitioned FMCSA to make revisions to the MCS-90 and MCS-90B endorsements to clarify that language in the endorsements imposing liability for negligence occurring ``on any route or in any territory authorized to be served by the insured or elsewhere'' does not include liability connected with transportation within Mexico. FMCSA seeks input from the public in the form of data or other information in response to several questions posed in the ANPRM to assist the Agency in evaluating these proposals.

Under Section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Pinedale Field Office announces the availability of a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) on a proposal for long-term development of natural gas resources in the Pinedale Anticline Project Area (PAPA). The BLM published the Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare a SEIS for the Pinedale Anticline Project in the Federal Register on October 21, 2005.

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Bombardier Model DHC-8-400 series airplanes. This AD requires repetitive cleaning/inspecting of the drain hole of each pitot static probe and repetitive cleaning of the pitot lines in the pitot static system. This AD results from reports of incidents of airspeed mismatch between the pilot, co-pilot, and standby airspeed indications caused by contamination in the pitot static system. We are issuing this AD to prevent erroneous/misleading altitude and airspeed information from a contaminated pitot static system to the flightcrew, which could reduce the ability of the flightcrew to maintain the safe flight and landing of the airplane.

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for Sicma Aero Seat third occupant seat assemblies, 133 series. This AD requires visually inspecting the installation of the two headrest bushings and installing Mecanindus pins to secure the bushings. This AD results from Sicma's determination that missing or incorrectly secured bushings could loosen and cause disengagement of the headrest from the seat during a high-energy stop of the airplane, possibly injuring the seat occupant. We are issuing this AD to prevent disengagement of the headrest from the seat during a high-energy stop of the airplane that could injure the seat occupant.

Notice is hereby given that the Dixie National Forest intends to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Forest Service to establish a system of designated roads, trails and areas for motorized vehicle use, thereby developing a Motorized Travel Plan. A new Motorized Travel Plan is needed to improve the management and enforcement of motor vehicle use on these National Forest System lands and meet the requirements of national policy for travel management. This notice describes the components to be included in a new travel plan, decisions to be made, estimated dates pertaining to the project, information concerning public participation, and the names, address and roles of the agency officials involved. The project area is defined by the boundaries of Dixie National Forest, including the Pine Valley, Cedar City, Powell and Escalante Ranger Districts, as well as the Teasdale portion of the Fremont River Ranger District, now administered by the Fishlake National Forest. For the purpose of this notice, the Dixie National Forest will include the Fremont River Ranger District.

Pursuant to Chapter 157, Sec. 2636a of Title 10 United States Code enacted by Congress on November 26, 2003, as amended by the Department of Defense Authorizations Act for FY 2007, the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC), as the Traffic Manager for Department of Defense (DOD) Personal Property Program, is informing the Transportation Service Provider (TSP)/contractor community of the mandatory requirement to provide Full Replacement Value (FRV) coverage to all customers of the DOD Personal Property Program. The cost of FRV shall be included in contracts with movers and FRV shall be made available to Service members and civilian employees. All shipments that have been picked up or are already in storage prior to the effective dates noted below will not be required to be covered by FRV. This notice affords TSPs/contractors ample time to incorporate the cost of providing FRV for loss/damage protection into their rates.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE), Wilmington District, Wilmington Regulatory Field Office has received a request for Department of the Army authorization, pursuant to Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, from the Town of Topsail Beach to conduct an emergency beach fill project to protect ocean front development and infrastructure until such time that a federally authorized shore protection project can be implemented. At this time, the construction date for the Federal project is uncertain. A Draft General Reevaluation ReportEnvironmental Impact Statement (GRR-EIS has been prepared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and was released for public review and comment in June 2006 (USACE, 2006). Given the current status of the GRR-EIS and the need for Congressional authorization, funding, preparation of plans and specifications, and right-of-way acquisition, the Federal project may not be implemented until Fiscal Year 2010, or possibly later.

In accordance with the procedures governing the application for, and the processing of, special permits from the Department of Transportation's Hazardous Material Regulations (49 CFR Part 107, Subpart B), notice is hereby given that the Office of Hazardous Materials Safety has received the application described herein. Each mode of transportation for which a particular special permit is requested is indicated by a number in the ``Nature of Application'' portion of the table below as follows: 1Motor vehicle, 2Rail Freight, 3Cargo Vessel, 4Cargo aircraft only, 5Passenger-carrying aircraft.

The USDA Forest Service will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) to disclose environmental effects on a proposed action to recover the economic value of dead and dying trees damaged in the Shake Table Fire Complex, and remove potential hazard trees from open forest travel routes within the Todd, Duncan, Fields Creek and Dry Creek subwatersheds. Shake Table Fire Complex, located approximately 20 miles south west of John Day, Oregon, burned approximately 14,527 acres across mixed ownership in August 2006, of that approximately 13,536 acres were on National Forest System Lands administered by the Blue Mountain Ranger District, Malheur National Forest. The proposed action is the Thorn Fire Salvage Recovery Project.

The Cascade Ranger District of the Boise National Forest will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for a resource management project in the Gold Fork River drainage. The entire project is located in the watersheds that drain into the Gold Fork River, which in turn drains into Cascade Reservoir. The 9,997 acre project area is located 10 miles northeast of Cascade, Idaho, and about 120 miles north of Boise, Idaho. The agency invites written comments and suggestions on the scope of the analysis. The agency also hereby gives notice of the environmental analysis and decisionmaking process that will occur on the proposal so interested and affected people are aware of how they may participate and contribute to the final decision. At this time no public meetings to discuss the project are planned. Proposed Action: Eight objectives have been identified for the project: (1) Retain the existing size class of stands currently identified as large tree and manipulate the structure of small and medium tree size class stands to accelerate their movement towards the large tree size class, thereby retaining and potentially contributing to habitat for some terrestrial wildlife species associated with large tree size class; (2) Reduce the densities of stands currently identified as large tree size class in order to maintain or restore canopy closures within desired conditions, and to potentially contribute to habitat for those terrestrial wildlife species associated with large tree size class stands with low to moderate canopy closures; (3) Consistent with the particular habitat type, discriminate against shade tolerant species such as grand fir and subalpine fir and encourage retention and recruitment of seral species; (4) Relative to Douglas-fir beetle, mountain pine beetle, western pine beetle, western spruce budworm, and/or dwarf mistletoe, manipulate the structures, densities, and compositions of stands in order to maintain a low or moderate susceptibility level, or to decrease susceptibility to a low or moderate level; (5) Maintain or restore aspen and immature whitebark pine by eliminating competition with other conifer species; (6) Improve long term stand growth to or near levels indicative of sustainable forests; (7) Provide wood products to support local and regional economies; and; (8) Stabilize the cutslope failure on the 498 road. The Proposed Action would implement silvicultural activities, including thinning of sub-merchantable trees, aspen enhancement, and whitebark pine enhancement, on 2,702 acres. An estimated 9.0 MMbf would be removed using tractor, off-road jammer, skyline, and helicopter yarding systems. The Proposed Action would employ a variety of silvicultural prescriptions including clearcut with reserve trees, commercial thin, improvement cut, irregular shelterwood, individual tree selection, sanitation, thinning of sub-merchantable trees, aspen enhancement, and whitebark pine enhancement. Road maintenance activities would occur on an estimated 0.4 miles of existing road under this alternative. Specifically, one under-sized culvert along the 402 road would be replaced with a culvert sufficient in size to accommodate a 100-year flow event; a series of drive-through dips would be installed on the 402F1 road to prevent erosion; a culvert would be installed on the 402F road to facilitate silvicultural activities, and; an existing slump on the cutslope along the 498 road would be stabilized. Roughly 1.1 miles of temporary road would be constructed to facilitate harvest activities and six helicopter landings constructed. Post-implementation management of the existing transportation system within the project area would not change under this alternative. All existing road restrictions would be reinstated upon completion of harvest activities. Preliminary Issues: Preliminary concerns with the Proposed Action include potential impacts on water quality and terrestrial wildlife species. Possible Alternatives to the Proposed Action: One alternative to the Proposed Action that has been discussed thus far is a no action alternative. Other alternatives will likely be developed as issues are identified and information received. Decisions to be Made: The Boise National Forest Supervisor will decide the following: (1) Should vegetation be managed within the project area at this time, and if so, which stands should be treated and what silvicultural systems applied? (2) Should temporary roads be built at this time, and if so, how many miles should be built and where should they occur within the project area? (3) Should aspen and immature whitebark pine be enhanced by eliminating competing conifer species, and if so, where within the project area? (4) Should identified road maintenance activities occur on portions of roads 402, 402F1, 402F, and 498 at this time? (5) What design features, mitigation measures, and/or monitoring should be applied to the project?