September 24, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) proposes to prepare an EIS for the Walker River Basin Acquisitions Program. The primary purpose of the program is to comply with the requirements of Public Law 107-171 (Desert Terminal Lakes Program), which appropriates funds to provide water to at-risk natural desert terminal lakes, and with Public Law 109-103, which allocates funds to the University of Nevada for two specific purposes. The first purpose is to implement a program for environmental restoration to acquire from willing sellers land, water appurtenant to the land, and related interests in the Walker River Basin, Nevada. Acquired water rights would be transferred to provide water to Walker Lake. The second purpose of the University's funding is to establish and operate an agricultural and natural resources center. The actions to be analyzed in this EIS will be the purchase of water rights and related interests from willing sellers in the Walker River Basin, Nevada.

The FHWA is revising its regulation that establishes the general requirements for quality assurance procedures for construction on all Federal-aid highway projects on the National Highway System (NHS).\1\ Specifically, the FHWA will require accreditation of laboratories that conduct crash tests on roadside hardware by an accrediting body that is recognized by the National Cooperation for Laboratory Accreditation (NACLA) or is a signatory to an International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA), an Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) MRA, or another comparable accreditation body approved by FHWA. This rule will improve the agency's ability to determine that crash test laboratories are qualified to conduct and evaluate tests intended to determine the crashworthiness of roadside safety features. Laboratory accreditation is widely recognized as a reliable indicator of technical competence.

Under the current schedules of controlled substances in the DEA regulations, among the substances listed in schedule III is a synthetic isomer of tetrahydrocannabinols (THC) contained in a specific formulation of a drug product approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As currently written, the DEA regulation would not necessarily include drug products approved by the FDA under section 505(j) of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) (21 U.S.C. 355) (commonly referred to as generic drugs) that cite the drug product currently listed in schedule III as the reference listed drug. DEA is hereby proposing to modify the regulation so that certain generic drug products are also included in the schedule III listing.

In the Report and Order, the Commission adopted measures to safeguard the Universal Service Fund (``USF'') from waste, fraud, and abuse. The intended effect of the measures adopted is to improve the management, administration, and oversight of the USF.

On September 17, 2007, the Commission released a public notice announcing the October 10, 2007 meeting and agenda of the North American Numbering Council (NANC). The intended effect of this action is to make the public aware of the NANC's next meeting and agenda.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the availability of the recovery plan for the Pacific Coast population of the Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus). The final plan includes recovery criteria and measures for the Pacific coast population of the western snowy plover.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2 is issuing this notice of intent to delete the Tabernacle Drum Dump Superfund Site (Site), located in Tabernacle Township, Burlington County, New Jersey from the National Priorities List (NPL) and requests public comment on this action. The NPL is Appendix B of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), 40 CFR part 300, which the EPA promulgated pursuant to section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), as amended. The EPA and the State of New Jersey, through the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, have determined that responsible parties have implemented all appropriate response actions required. No further operation and maintenance activities or five-year reviews are required at this site.

Pursuant to Section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Council of Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR part 1505.6), and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Section 151710, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), in cooperation with the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA), will prepare a joint Environmental Impact Statement/ Environmental Impact Report (EIS/EIR) for the Van Ness Avenue Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project, an approximately two-mile transit improvement along Van Ness Avenue through the City and County of San Francisco, California. The Project would create dedicated bus lanes from approximately South Van Ness Avenue and Mission Street (south end) to Van Ness Avenue and Lombard Street (north end). The project would also establish high capacity stations with passenger amenities and low-level boarding platforms; real time bus arrival information systems; proof- of-payment fare verification; transit signal priority; and modern, high-capacity, low-floor, multi-door buses. The EIS/EIR will evaluate the following alternatives: (1) No- Project/Baseline Alternative; (2) Van Ness Avenue BRT Project, which will include design options for the configuration of the BRT transitway and stations; and (3) any additional reasonable alternatives that emerge from the study process. The EIS will be prepared in accordance with FTA regulations (23 CFR 771 et seq.) implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) as well as provisions of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). The EIR will be prepared in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (California Code of Regulation, Title 14, Chapter 3). As part of the EIS/EIR process, an evaluation of potential transit improvement alternatives will be completed (``alternatives analysis'') in accordance with 23 CFR Part 450 and inform the development of project alternatives. Previous studies and documents relevant to this action include the recently completed Van Ness Avenue BRT Feasibility Study (December 2006); 2005 Prop K Strategic Plan (March 2005); 2004 San Francisco Countywide Transportation Plan (adopted July 20, 2004), and the New Transportation Expenditure Plan for San Francisco (Proposition K, approved November 4, 2003). These documents describe the planning and funding for transportation improvements in San Francisco, including BRT in major bus corridors. These documents can be downloaded at the Web site www.sfcta.org, or requested from the Authority. EIS/EIR preparation will be initiated through a formal NEPA scoping process, which solicits input on issues and potential project impacts to consider in the environmental studies. Scoping will be accomplished through meetings and correspondence with interested persons, organizations, the general public, and Federal, State, and local agencies. Letters describing the proposed action and soliciting comments have been sent to the appropriate Federal, State, and local agencies, and to private organizations and individuals. Comments on issues and impacts to be considered in preparation of the EIS/EIR will be recorded in the project information database.

Under this notice, the FAA announces that New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) have been designated Level 2 Schedules Facilitated Airports for the summer 2008 scheduling season in accordance with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Worldwide Scheduling Guidelines. Accordingly, the FAA announces an October 11, 2007, deadline for submitting schedule information for all planned flights at JFK and EWR between the hours of 6 a.m. and 11 p.m., local time or 1000 and 0300 UTC. The FAA deadline coincides with the submission deadline established by IATA for the Summer 2008 Schedules Conference. The U.S. summer scheduling season is from March 9, 2008, through November 1, 2008, in recognition of the U.S. daylight saving time dates. The FAA understands the IATA summer 2008 season is March 30, 2008, through October 25, 2008. The FAA will accept schedules that coincide with the IATA scheduling season, rather than U.S. daylight saving dates, in order to ease the administrative burdens on carriers conducting international operations and in order to ensure that FAA has the most accurate schedule information. The Level 2 designations for JFK and EWR are necessary because of increased levels of air traffic operations, congestion and delay at the airports and a tangible decrease in operational performance (performance data for each airport is provided below). The FAA is implementing a number of initiatives for JFK and EWR to improve air traffic control (ATC) efficiency and reduce delays at those and other airports. For instance, ATC has increased use of a second departure runway at JFK when conditions permit. Other measures for both airports will improve routing options during periods of adverse weather conditions. And, over the next several years, the FAA will redesign airspace in the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia areas in order to improve efficiency and reduce delays. These near term measures, however, are not sufficient to meet the current peak hour operational demands at these airports.

This notice announces a service disruption to DOT's Docket Management System (DMS), which contains the public dockets for all DOT agencies (except for the Surface Transportation Board), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the United States Coast Guard (USCG). (Subsequent references to ``DOT'' in this document also apply to TSA and USCG.) Effective September 30, 2007, DOT's DMS will be replaced by the Federal Docket Management System (FDMS), a government-wide, electronic docket management system. Please note that in preparation for migration, effective Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 5 p.m. DMS will no longer accept electronic comments/submissions. DMS will accept, as well as process, faxed and other paper documents up until 12 noon on Friday, September 28, 2007. If falling due during this transition, due dates for filings in rulemakings and adjudications will be delayed until October 1, 2007, unless otherwise advised by the originating office. On October 1, 2007 FDMS will begin accepting DOT- related electronic submission. At that time, it will display all open DOT dockets. Between October 1 and October 31, the remaining DOT dockets still will be accessible in DMS. By October 31, the full migration of all dockets currently in DMS is expected to be completed. The change in systems will not change any requirements in DOT regulations.

The Defense Science Board Task Force on Nuclear Weapons Surety will meet in closed session on October 10-11, 2007; at the Institute for Defense Analyses, 4850 Mark Center Drive, Alexandria, VA. The mission of the Defense Science Board is to advise the Secretary of Defense and the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics on scientific and technical matters as they affect the perceived needs of the Department of Defense. At the meeting, the Defense Science Board Task Force will: Assess all aspects of nuclear weapons surety; continue to build on the work of the former Joint Advisory Committee on Nuclear Weapons Surety, the Nuclear C2 System End-to-End Review and the Drell Panel; and review and recommend methods and strategies to maintain a safe, secure and viable nuclear deterrent. The task force's findings and recommendations, pursuant to 41 CFR 102-3.140 through 102-3.165, will be presented and discussed by the membership of the Defense Science Board prior to being presented to the Government's decision maker. Pursuant to 41 CFR 102-3.120 and 102-3.150, the Designated Federal Officer for the Defense Science Board will determine and announce in the Federal Register when the findings and recommendations of the October 10-11, 2007, meeting are deliberated by the Defense Science Board. Interested persons may submit a written statement for consideration by the Defense Science Board. Individuals submitting a written statement must submit their statement to the Designated Federal Official at the address detailed below; at any point, however, if a written statement is not received at least 10 calendar days prior to the meeting, which is the subject of this notice, then it may not be provided to or considered by the Defense Science Board. The Designated Federal Official will review all timely submissions with the Defense Science Board Chairperson, and ensure they are provided to members of the Defense Science Board before the meeting that is the subject of this notice.

The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary (MNMS or Sanctuary) is seeking applicants for the following vacant seats on its Sanctuary Advisory Council (Council): Recreational Diving; Maritime Archaeological Research; Conservation; Heritage Tourism; and Citizen- At-Large. Applicants are chosen based upon their particular expertise and experience in relation to the seat for which they are applying; community and professional affiliations; philosophy regarding the protection and management of marine resources; and possibly the length of residence in the area affected by the Sanctuary. Applicants who are chosen as members should expect to serve 2-year terms, pursuant to the Council's Charter.

Purpose of Program: The purpose of the Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (BEDI) program is to enhance the security of a loan guaranteed by HUD under Section 108 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, as amended, for the same brownfields economic development project, or to improve the viability of a brownfields economic development project financed with the Section 108-guaranteed loan, in order to stimulate economic development by local governments and private sector parties at brownfields sites and to return those sites to productive, economic use. All BEDI grants must be used in conjunction with a new Section 108-guaranteed loan commitment.

The United States Department of Commerce is organizing a Clean Energy Trade Mission to China and India, January 8-17, 2008. The trade mission will target a broad range of clean energy technologies such as renewable energy, biofuels, energy efficiency, clean coal, and distributed generation, and be led by Assistant Secretary of Commerce David Bohigian. ITA seeks to match participating U.S. companies with prescreened partners, agents, distributors, representatives, licensees or retailers in each of these important sectors. In addition to one-on-one business meetings, the agenda will also include meetings with national and local government officials, networking opportunities, country briefings, and site visits. This mission builds on the first U.S. Clean Energy Technologies Trade Mission, which took place in April 2007 and brought 17 U.S. companies to China and India. The trade mission takes place within the context of both the President's new international framework on climate change, energy security, and economic growth involving the 15 major economies (the Global-15), as well as the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP). On May 31, 2007, President Bush announced an effort to develop and implement the Global-15 framework by 2012, which would complement the current United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and advance the APP. The APP is a public-private partnership in which member countries work together to facilitate commercial deployment of technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance energy security.

Many areas of today's research require multi-disciplinary teams in which the intellectual leadership of the project is shared among two or more individuals. To facilitate this team approach through recognition of the contributions of the team leadership members, OSTP issued a memorandum to all Federal research agencies on January 4, 2005, requiring them to formally allow more than one PI on individual research awards. The Federal agencies then sought input from the research communityscientists, research administrators, and organizations that represent components of the scientific communityon how best to implement this policy. This input was sought via a Request for Information published in the Federal Register on July 18, 2005 that posed a series of questions around core elements that will comprise each agency's implementation plan. The six core elements, to be posted on the Research Business Models (RBM) Web Site, include: (1) Statement of what constitutes a PI; (2) designation of contact PI; (3) application instructions for listing more than one PI; (4) PIs at different institutions; (5) access to award and review information; and (6) identification of all PIs in public data systems. The Supplementary Information section of this Notice provides background on the Research Business Models (RBM) Subcommittee of the Committee on Science (COS), the plan to recognize multiple PIs on Federal research projects, a summary of the responses to the Request for Information, and the government response to the comments submitted. The final policy on the recognition of multiple PIs is contained in the Policy Section.