December 6, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

By this notice, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announces the formation of an Aviation Rulemaking Committee to review regulations affecting certification and operation of airplanes and airports for airplane takeoff and landing operations on runways contaminated by snow, slush, ice, or standing water. This review may also encompass related portions of other regulations, as appropriate, and harmonization with other foreign aviation regulations. To get a copy of the Order that established this Aviation Rulemaking Committee go to; https://www.faa.gov/about/committees/rulemaking/. The FAA will establish a Takeoff/Landing Performance Assessment Aviation Rulemaking Committee to conduct this review and provide advice and recommendations to: a. Establish airplane certification and operational requirements (including training) for takeoff and landing operations on contaminated runways. b. Establish landing distance assessment requirements, including minimum landing distance safety margins, to be performed at the time of arrival. c. Establish standards for runway surface condition reporting and minimum surface conditions for continued operations. The FAA invites persons interested in serving on this committee or work groups to request membership in accordance with this notice. The FAA will select members to provide a balance of viewpoints, interests, and expertise. The subjects of the committee meetings will be highly technical and therefore require participants to have significant education background, technical background, and/or work experience for the committee to have the maximum benefit. Membership on the committee will be limited to facilitate discussions and to maintain a balance of interests. In addition, the FAA invites interested persons to submit specific, detailed written comments, or provide input on the affected regulatory sections. These comments will be considered in the committee discussions and will assist in determining future regulatory action.

This rule identifies communities, where the sale of flood insurance has been authorized under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), that are scheduled for suspension on the effective dates listed within this rule because of noncompliance with the floodplain management requirements of the program. If the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) receives documentation that the community has adopted the required floodplain management measures prior to the effective suspension date given in this rule, the suspension will not occur and a notice of this will be provided by publication in the Federal Register on a subsequent date.

Comments are requested on the proposed Base (1 percent annual- chance) Flood Elevations (BFEs) and proposed BFE modifications for the communities listed in the table below. The purpose of this notice is to seek general information and comment regarding the proposed regulatory flood elevations for the reach described by the downstream and upstream locations in the table below. The BFEs and modified BFEs are a part of the floodplain management measures that the community is required either to adopt or show evidence of having in effect in order to qualify or remain qualified for participation in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). In addition, these elevations, once finalized, will be used by insurance agents and others to calculate appropriate flood insurance premium rates for new buildings and the contents in those buildings.

Comments are requested on the proposed Base (1 percent annual- chance) Flood Elevations (BFEs) and proposed BFE modifications for the communities listed in the table below. The purpose of this notice is to seek general information and comment regarding the proposed regulatory flood elevations for the reach described by the downstream and upstream locations in the table below. The BFEs and modified BFEs are a part of the floodplain management measures that the community is required either to adopt or show evidence of having in effect in order to qualify or remain qualified for participation in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). In addition, these elevations, once finalized, will be used by insurance agents, and others to calculate appropriate flood insurance premium rates for new buildings and the contents in those buildings.

This action corrects a spelling error in final regulations (FR Doc. 03-8822) that were published in the Federal Register on April 15, 2003 (68 FR 18145). This action is necessary to correct a typographical error of an organized tribal entity name in regulations that implement Pacific halibut subsistence fishing management measures. This correcting amendment makes minor, non-substantive changes and does not change operating practices in the subsistence fishery or the rights and obligations of subsistence fishermen managed under the subsistence halibut regulations off Alaska.

This regulation extends the temporary exemption from the requirement of a tolerance for residues of the Bacillus thuringiensis Vip3Aa19 protein in cotton when applied or used as a plant-incorporated protectant (PIP). Syngenta Seeds, Inc., submitted a petition to EPA under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA), requesting the temporary tolerance exemption be extended. This regulation eliminates the need to establish a maximum permissible level for residues of Bacillus thuringiensis Vip3Aa19 protein in cotton when applied or used as a PIP on cotton. The temporary tolerance exemption expires on May 1, 2009.

This document proposes adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the specified Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation (Sikorsky) model helicopters. The AD would require installing an electric chip detector on each engine and an on-board chip detector annunciation system. The AD would also require revising the Rotorcraft Flight Manual (RFM) to add procedures for crew response to the illumination of an on-board chip detector warning light. This AD would also require testing the engine chip detector system at specified intervals. This proposal is prompted by reports of Number 5 engine bearing failures. Failure of the bearing resulted in erratic movement of the high-speed, engine-to- transmission shaft (shaft), an oil leak, an in-flight fire, and an emergency landing. The actions specified by the proposed AD are intended to detect an impending bearing failure, which if undetected and not addressed by appropriate crew action may result in an oil leak, a severed shaft housing, an uncontained in-flight fire, and a subsequent emergency landing.

This notice announces the final rule requiring recipients of grants under 49 U.S.C. 5311, Formula Grants for Other Than Urbanized Areas (Nonurbanized Area Formula Grants,) to report annual data to the National Transit Database (NTD) as a condition for receiving these grants. In addition, this final rule makes non-substantive changes, technical corrections, and conforming amendments to the ``National Transit Database'' regulation.

In this Candidate Notice of Review (CNOR), we, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), present an updated list of plant and animal species native to the United States that we regard as candidates for or have proposed for addition to the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. Identification of candidate species can assist environmental planning efforts by providing advance notice of potential listings, allowing landowners and resource managers to alleviate threats and thereby possibly remove the need to list species as endangered or threatened. Even if we subsequently list a candidate species, the early notice provided here could result in more options for species management and recovery by prompting candidate conservation measures to alleviate threats to the species. The CNOR summarizes the status and threats that we evaluated in order to determine that species qualify as candidates and to assign a listing priority number (LPN) to each species, or to remove species from candidate status. Additional material that we relied on is available in the Species Assessment and Listing Priority Assignment Forms (species assessment forms, previously called candidate forms) for each candidate species. Overall, this CNOR recognizes 5 new candidates, changes the LPN for 29 candidates, and removes 4 species from candidate status. Combined with other decisions for individual species that were published separately from this CNOR, the new number of species that are candidates for listing is 280. We request additional status information that may be available for the 280 candidate species identified in this CNOR. We will consider this information in preparing listing documents and future revisions to the notice of review, as it will help us in monitoring changes in the status of candidate species and in management for conserving them. We also request information on additional species that we should consider including as candidates as we prepare future updates of this notice. This document also includes our findings on resubmitted petitions and describes our progress in revising the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants during the period September 26, 2006, through September 30, 2007.

NMFS proposes 2008 and 2009 harvest specifications and prohibited species catch allowances for the groundfish fisheries of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI). This action is necessary to establish harvest limits for groundfish during the 2008 and 2009 fishing years and to accomplish the goals and objectives of the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area. The intended effect of this action is to conserve and manage the groundfish resources in the BSAI in accordance with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.