July 26, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to submit an information collection request (ICR), ``Valuing Improved Water Quality in the Chesapeake Bay Using Stated Preference Methods (New)'' (EPA ICR No. 2456.01, OMB Control No. 2010-NEW) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act. On May 24, 2012 EPA solicited public comments for 60 days on the proposed ICR. Certain supporting documents were not available for public review in the docket during the first 30 days of the comment period, thus EPA is re-opening the comment period for an additional 30 days from the publication of this notice. Public comments are being solicited on specific aspects of the proposed information collection as described below. This is a request for approval of a new collection. An Agency may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

This rule increases the assessment rate established for the Florida Tomato Committee (Committee) for the 2011-12 and subsequent fiscal periods from $0.0275 to $0.037 per 25-pound carton of tomatoes handled. The Committee locally administers the marketing order which regulates the handling of tomatoes grown in Florida. Assessments upon tomato handlers are used by the Committee to fund reasonable and necessary expenses of the program. The fiscal period begins August 1 and ends July 31. The assessment rate will remain in effect indefinitely unless modified, suspended, or terminated.

On March 8, 2012, HUD announced through notice in the Federal Register the partial implementation and request for comments on the full implementation of the statutorily authorized Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), which has two conversion components. RAD provides the opportunity to test the conversion of public housing and other HUD- assisted properties to long-term, project-based Section 8 rental assistance to achieve certain goals, including the preservation and improvement of these properties through access by public housing agencies (PHAs) and owners to private debt and equity to address immediate and long-term capital needs. RAD is also designed to test the extent to which residents have increased housing choices after the conversion, and the overall impact on the subject properties. The March 8, 2012 notice solicited public comment specifically on HUD's proposal for full implementation of the demonstration, but also invited comment on the policy and procedures that would govern partial implementation of the demonstration under the second component. This Federal Register notice published today announces full implementation of RAD, and the posting of the Final Program Notice (Final Program Notice, PIH-2012-32) on HUD's RAD Web site. As provided by the RAD statute, this notice addresses the requirement that the demonstration may proceed after publication of notice of its terms in the Federal Register. HUD's Final Program Notice takes into consideration the public comments received in response to HUD's March 8, 2012 solicitation of comments. This Notice summarizes the key changes made to the Program Notice (PIH 2012-18) issued on March 8, 2012. This notice also meets the RAD statutory requirement to publish waivers and alternative requirements authorized by the statute at least 10 days before they may take effect, which does not prevent the demonstration from proceeding immediately.

FRA is issuing this notice to advise the public that a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has been prepared for the Fresno to Bakersfield Section of the California High- Speed Train (HST) Project (Project). FRA is the lead Federal agency and the California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority) is the lead state agency for the environmental review process. The Supplemental Draft EIS was prepared by FRA and the Authority to meet the federal requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and to serve as the Authority's Revised Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in compliance with the state law requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is a Cooperating Agency for the Supplemental Draft EIS.

The Regional Administrator, Southwest Region, NMFS, has made a preliminary determination that an application for an Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) warrants further consideration. The application was submitted by members of the Pacific sardine fishing industry who request an exemption from seasonal closures of the directed fishery to conduct a survey designed to estimate the population size of Pacific sardine. NMFS requests public comment on the application.

In preparation for the 2012 International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) meeting, the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Section to ICCAT is announcing the convening of its fall meeting.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is further extending the date by which public comments are due concerning proposed regulations to revise existing regulations governing the confidentiality of information submitted in compliance with any requirement or regulation under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act or MSA). NMFS published the proposed rule on May 23, 2012 and announced that the public comment period would end on June 22, 2012. NMFS published a revision on June 13, 2012, extending the comment period to August 21, 2012. With this notice, NMFS is extending the comment period to October 21, 2012. Additionally, this action corrects Release of confidential information, in which the paragraphs were incorrectly numbered.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington Department of Ecology and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Suquamish Tribe, Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are collectively referred to as the Trustee Council for this case. The Trustee Council is providing notice that the Supplement to the Draft Programmatic Restoration Plan and Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (RP/PEIS) are being released for public comment. The Restoration Plan identifies a restoration approach to compensate for injuries to natural resources in the Lower Duwamish River. The Trustees seek damages from potentially responsible parties (PRPs) to restore, rehabilitate, replace or acquire the equivalent of natural resources and services injured by the release of hazardous substances in the Lower Duwamish River. This notice provides details on the availability of and opportunity to comment on the Supplement to the Draft Programmatic Restoration Plan and PEIS. Comments may be submitted in written form or verbally at a public meeting.

This notice announces the availability of the BPA's ROD for entering into an Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Kalispel Tribe for implementing fish and wildlife projects in and around Lake Pend Oreille and the Pend Oreille River in Pend Orielle County, Washington and Bonner Counties, Idaho. BPA has decided to enter into the MOA to pursue mutual goals with the Kalispel Tribe of protecting and recovering fish and wildlife affected by the Federal Columbia River Power System in the area. This ROD is tiered to the BPA's Fish and Wildlife Implementation Program Environmental Impact Statement (DOE/EIS-0312, April 2003) and its ROD (October 31, 2003).

In response to a request from an interested party, the United States Steel Corporation, the Department of Commerce (the Department) initiated an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on seamless carbon and alloy steel standard, line, and pressure pipe from the People's Republic of China. The period of review is November 10, 2010, through October 31, 2011. Based on the timely withdrawal of the request for review submitted by United States Steel Corporation, we are now rescinding this administrative review.

DoD, GSA, and NASA are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to provide additional guidance when raising the ceiling price or otherwise changing the scope of work for a time-and-materials (T&M) or labor-hour (LH) contract or order.

On January 3, 2011, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), as the lead federal agency, and the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) published a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the North Red and Purple Line Modernization (RPM) Project in Cook County, Illinois. The purpose of this supplemental NOI is to inform interested parties that the EIS will no longer be a Tier 1 EIS as originally proposed. The methodology and format will now be a standard project-level EIS. All other aspects (Location, Purpose and Need, Alternatives, Scoping, and Possible Effects) of the original NOI remain unchanged. Activities conducted to date pursuant to the original NOI will not be impacted or reexamined. The proposed project, described more completely in the January 3, 2011 NOI, would bring the North Red and Purple lines up to a state of good repair from the track structure immediately north of Belmont Station in Chicago to the Linden terminal in Wilmette, Illinois. Materials describing the project purpose and need and the alternatives proposed for analysis are available on the CTA Web site www.transitchicago.com/rpmproject. The CTA operates the rapid transit system in metropolitan Chicago, Illinois.

To comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), we are notifying the public that we have submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) an information collection request (ICR) for renewal of the currently approved paperwork requirements for the Mineral Resources Program's (MRP) Mineral Resource External Research Program (MRERP). This notice provides the public and other Federal agencies an opportunity to comment on the paperwork burden of these project narrative and report requirements. This collection is scheduled to expire on August 31, 2012.

The Department of the Air Force proposes to alter a system of records notice in its existing inventory of records systems subject to the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), as amended. The blanket (k)(1) exemption applies to this systems of records to accurately describe the basis for exempting disclosure of classified information that is or may be contained in the records.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for Eurocopter France (Eurocopter) Model EC130 B4 helicopters with a cabin vibration damper installed. This proposed AD is prompted by a crack and failure of a cabin vibration damper blade. The proposed actions are intended to modify the cabin vibration damper assembly to prevent contact with the flight controls in the event of a cabin vibration blade failure, jamming of a flight control, and subsequent loss of control of the helicopter.

We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for the Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH (Eurocopter) Model MBB-BK 117 C-2 helicopters. This proposed AD is prompted by the discovery that some helicopters have blind rivets installed in the place of solid rivets in the long tail rotor drive shaft. The proposed actions are intended to detect blind rivets installed in the long tail rotor drive shaft, which could lead to failure of the tail rotor drive shaft and subsequent loss of control of the helicopter.

The Office of the Secretary is announcing that the Secretarial Commission on Indian Trust Administration and Reform (the Commission) will hold a public Webinar meeting on August 13, 2012. The Commission has gathered valuable information to begin work on various subcommittees to explore the definitions and foundation of the trust relationship, explore other trust models, review reports and various documents and identify recommendations from previous studies, and consider the nature and scope of necessary audits of the Department's trust administration systems. The Secretarial Commission's charter requires the Commission to provide well-reasoned and factually based recommendations for potential improvements to the existing management and administration of the trust administration system. The Commission is committed to early public engagement and welcomes your participation in these important meetings.