Notice of Availability of a Draft Site-Specific Environmental Assessment and Notice of Public Hearings, 50008-50009 [2010-20107]

Agencies

• NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 157 (Monday, August 16, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50008-50009]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-20107]


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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION


Notice of Availability of a Draft Site-Specific Environmental 
Assessment and Notice of Public Hearings

AGENCY: National Science Foundation.

ACTION: Notice of the availability of a Draft Site-Specific 
Environmental Assessment (Draft SSEA) for the Ocean Observatories 
Initiative (OOI), request for public comment on the Draft SSEA, and 
notice of public hearings.

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SUMMARY: The National Science Foundation (NSF) gives notice of the 
availability of the Draft SSEA for the OOI, and requests public review 
and comment on the document. NSF also provides notice of public 
hearings on the Draft SSEA for the OOI. The Division of Ocean Sciences 
in the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO/OCE) has prepared a Draft SSEA 
for the OOI, a multi-million dollar Major Research Equipment and 
Facilities Construction effort intended to put moored and cable 
infrastructure in discrete locations in the coastal and global ocean. 
The Draft SSEA has been prepared to assess the potential impacts on the 
human and natural environment associated with proposed site-specific 
requirements in the design, installation, and operation of the OOI that 
were previously assessed in a 2008 Programmatic Environmental 
Assessment (PEA) and a 2009 Supplemental Environmental Report (SER). 
The scope of the environmental impact analysis of the SSEA is tiered 
from the previously prepared PEA, associated Finding of No Significant 
Impact (FONSI), and SER. It focuses only on those activities and the 
associated potential impacts, including cumulative impacts, resulting 
from the site-specific installation and operation of OOI assets and not 
previously assessed in the PEA and SER. The Draft SSEA is available for 
public comment for a 30-day period. Comments may be mailed to Jean 
McGovern, National Science Foundation, Division of Ocean Sciences, 4201 
Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230, or submitted via e-mail at 
nepacomments@nsf.gov. The deadline for submitting comments is September 
15, 2010.
    NSF will conduct three public hearings to receive oral and written 
comments on the Draft SSEA. Federal, state, and local agencies, Native 
American Tribes and Nations, and interested individuals are invited to 
be present or represented at the public hearings. This notice announces 
the dates and locations of the public hearings for this Draft SSEA. An 
open house session will precede the scheduled public hearing at each of 
the locations listed below and will allow individuals to review the 
information presented in the Draft SSEA. NSF representatives will be 
available during the open house sessions to clarify information related 
to the Draft SSEA.
    Dates and Addresses: All hearings will start with an open house 
session from X p.m. to X p.m. A presentation and formal public comment 
period will be held from X p.m. to X p.m. Public hearings will be held 
on the following dates and at the following locations:
     Wednesday, September 1, 2010, at Westport Maritime Museum, 
Westport, WA.
     Thursday, September 2, 2010, at Guin Library Seminar Room, 
Hatfield Marine Science Center, Newport, OR.
     Wednesday, September 8, 2010, at New Bedford Library, 613 
Pleasant Street, New Bedford, MA 02740-6203.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Copies of the Draft SSEA are available 
upon request from: Jean McGovern, NSF, Division of Ocean Sciences, 4201 
Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230; Telephone: (703) 292-7591. The Draft 
SSEA is also available at the following Web site: https://www.nsf.gov/geo/oce/envcomp/index.jsp.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Oceanographic research has long relied on 
research vessel cruises (expeditions) as the predominate means to make 
direct measurements of the ocean. Remote sensing (use of satellites) 
has greatly advanced abilities to measure ocean surface characteristics 
over extended periods of time. A major advancement for oceanographic 
research methods is the ability to make sustained, long-term, and 
adaptive measurements from the surface to the ocean bottom. ``Ocean 
Observatories'' are now being developed to further this goal. Building 
upon recent technology advances and lessons learned from prototype 
ocean observatories, NSF's Ocean Sciences Division (OCE) is proposing 
to fund the OOI, an interactive, globally distributed and integrated 
infrastructure that will be the backbone for the next generation of 
ocean sensors and resulting complex ocean studies presently 
unachievable. The OOI reflects a community-wide, national and 
international scientific planning effort and is a key NSF contribution 
to the broader effort to establish focused national ocean observatory 
capabilities through the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS).
    The OOI infrastructure would include cables, buoys, deployment 
platforms, moorings, junction boxes, electric power generation (solar, 
wind, and/or fuel cell,), and two-way communications systems. This 
large-scale infrastructure would support sensors located at the sea 
surface, in the water column, and at or beneath the seafloor. The OOI 
would also support related elements, such as unified project 
management, data dissemination and archiving, modeling of oceanographic 
processes, and education and outreach activities essential to the long-
term success of ocean science. It would include the first U.S. multi-
node cabled observatory; fixed and re-locatable coastal arrays coupled 
with mobile assets; and advanced buoys for interdisciplinary 
measurements, especially for data limited areas of the Southern Ocean 
and other high-latitude locations.
    The OOI design is based upon three main technical elements across 
global, regional, and coastal scales. At the global and coastal scales, 
moorings would provide locally generated power to seafloor and platform 
instruments and sensors and use a satellite link to shore and the 
Internet. Up to four Global Scale Nodes (GSN) or buoy sites are 
proposed for ocean sensing in the

[[Page 50009]]

Eastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The Regional-Scale Nodes (RSN) off 
the coast of Washington and Oregon would consist of seafloor 
observatories with various chemical, biological, and geological sensors 
linked with submarine cables to shore that provide power and Internet 
connectivity. Coastal-Scale Nodes (CSN) would be represented by the 
fixed Endurance Array, consisting of a combination of cabled nodes and 
stand-alone moorings, off the coast of Washington and Oregon, and the 
relocatable Pioneer Array off the coast of Massachusetts, consisting of 
a suite of stand-alone moorings. In addition, there would be an 
integration of mobile assets such as autonomous underwater vehicles 
(AUVS) and/or gliders with the GSN, RSN, and CSN observatories.
    The Draft SSEA is available upon request from: Jean McGovern, NSF, 
Division of Ocean Sciences, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230; 
Telephone: (703) 292-7591. It is also available for electronic public 
viewing at the following Web site: https://www.nsf.gov/geo/oce/envcomp/index.jsp.
    Federal, state, local agencies, Native American Tribes and Nations, 
and interested parties are invited to be present or represented at the 
public hearings. Written comments can also be submitted during the open 
house sessions preceding the public hearings or at any time during the 
30-day public review period of the Draft SSEA.
    Oral statements will be heard and transcribed by a stenographer; 
however, to ensure the accuracy of the record, all statements should be 
submitted in writing. All statements, both oral and written, will 
become part of the public record on the Draft SSEA and will be 
responded to in the Final SSEA. Equal weight will be given to both oral 
and written statements. In the interest of available time, and to 
ensure all who wish to give an oral statement have the opportunity to 
do so, each speaker's comments will be limited to three (3) minutes. If 
a long statement is to be presented, it should be summarized at the 
public hearing with the full text submitted either in writing at the 
hearing or mailed to Jean McGovern, National Science Foundation, 
Division of Ocean Sciences, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230. In 
addition, comments may be submitted via e-mail at nepacomments@nsf.gov.

    Dated: August 10, 2010.
Suzanne H. Plimpton,
Reports Clearance Officer, National Science Foundation.
[FR Doc. 2010-20107 Filed 8-13-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7555-01-P