Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Environmental Impact Assessment of Nongovernmental Activities in Antarctica (Renewal), 11913-11914 [2023-03821]

Agencies

• ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 37 (Friday, February 24, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11913-11914]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-03821]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OA-2019-0370; FRL-10745-01-OMS]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Environmental Impact Assessment of Nongovernmental Activities 
in Antarctica (Renewal)

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency has submitted an 
information collection request (ICR), ``Environmental Impact Assessment 
of Nongovernmental Activities in Antarctica (Renewal)'' (EPA ICR No. 
1808.10, OMB Control No. 2020-0007) to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act. This is a proposed extension of the ICR, which is 
currently approved through April 30, 2023. Public comments were 
previously requested via the Federal Register on August 30, 2022, 
during a 60-day comment period. This notice allows for an additional 30 
days for public comments. A fuller description of the ICR is given 
below, including its estimated burden and cost to the public. 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.

DATES: Additional comments may be submitted on or before March 27, 
2023.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments to EPA, referencing Docket ID Number 
EPA-HQ-OA-2019-0370, online using www.regulations.gov (our preferred 
method), by email to [email protected], or by mail to: EPA 
Docket Center, Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460. EPA's policy is that all 
comments received will be included in the public docket without change 
including any personal information provided, unless the comment 
includes profanity, threats, information claimed to be Confidential 
Business Information (CBI), or other information whose disclosure is 
restricted by statute.
    Submit written comments and recommendations to OMB for the proposed 
information collection within 30 days of publication of this notice to 
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular information 
collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--Open for 
Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Julie Roemele, NEPA Compliance 
Division, Office of Federal Activities, Mail Code 2203A, Environmental 
Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460; 
telephone number: 202-564-5632; email address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supporting documents which explain in detail 
the information that the EPA will be collecting are available in the 
public docket for this ICR. The docket can be viewed online at 
www.regulations.gov or in person at the EPA Docket Center, WJC West, 
Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC. The telephone 
number for the Docket Center is 202-566-1744. For additional 
information about EPA's public docket, visit https://www.epa.gov/dockets.
    Abstract: The EPA's regulations at 40 CFR part 8, Environmental 
Impact Assessment of Nongovernmental Activities in Antarctica (Rule), 
were promulgated pursuant to the Antarctic Science, Tourism, and 
Conservation Act of 1996 (Act), 16 U.S.C. 2401 et seq., as amended, 16 
U.S.C. 2403a, which implements the Protocol on Environmental Protection 
(Protocol) to the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 (Treaty). The Rule provides 
for assessment of the environmental impacts of nongovernmental 
activities in Antarctica, including tourism, for which the United 
States is required to give advance notice under Paragraph 5 of Article 
VII of the Treaty, and for coordination of the review of information 
regarding environmental impact assessments received from other Parties 
under the Protocol. The requirements of the Rule apply to operators of 
nongovernmental expeditions organized or proceeding from the territory 
of the United States to Antarctica and include commercial and non-
commercial expeditions.

[[Page 11914]]

Expeditions may include ship-based tours; yacht, skiing or 
mountaineering expeditions; privately funded research expeditions; and 
other nongovernmental activities. The rule provides nongovernmental 
operators with the specific requirements they need to meet to comply 
with the requirements of Article 8 and Annex I to the Protocol. The 
provisions of the Rule are intended to ensure that potential 
environmental effects of nongovernmental activities undertaken in 
Antarctica are appropriately identified and considered by the operator 
during the planning process and that to the extent practicable 
appropriate environmental safeguards which would mitigate or prevent 
adverse impacts on the Antarctic environment are identified by the 
operator.
    Environmental Documentation. Persons subject to the Rule must 
prepare environmental documentation to support the operator's 
determination regarding the level of environmental impact of the 
proposed expedition. Environmental documentation includes a Preliminary 
Environmental Review Memorandum (PERM), an Initial Environmental 
Evaluation (IEE), or a Comprehensive Environmental Evaluation (CEE). 
The environmental document is submitted to the Office of Federal 
Activities (OFA). If the operator determines that an expedition may 
have: (1) less than a minor or transitory impact, a PERM needs to be 
submitted no later than 180 days before the proposed departure to 
Antarctica; (2) no more than minor or transitory impacts, an IEE needs 
to be submitted no later than 90 days before the proposed departure; or 
(3) more than minor or transitory impacts, a CEE needs to be submitted. 
Operators who anticipate such activities are encouraged to consult with 
EPA as soon as possible regarding the date for submittal of the CEE. 
(Article 3(4), of Annex I of the Protocol requires that draft CEEs be 
distributed to all Parties and the Committee for Environmental 
Protection 120 days in advance of the next Antarctic Treaty 
Consultative Meeting at which the CEE may be addressed.)
    The Protocol and the Rule also require an operator to employ 
procedures to assess and provide a regular and verifiable record of the 
actual impacts of an activity which proceeds based on an IEE or CEE. 
The record developed through these measures needs to be designed to: 
(a) enable assessments to be made of the extent to which environmental 
impacts of nongovernmental expeditions are consistent with the 
Protocol; and (b) provide information useful for minimizing and 
mitigating those impacts and, where appropriate, on the need for 
suspension, cancellation, or modification of the activity. Moreover, an 
operator needs to monitor key environmental indicators for an activity 
proceeding based on a CEE. An operator may also need to carry out 
monitoring to assess and verify the impact of an activity for which an 
IEE would be prepared. For activities that require an IEE, an operator 
should be able to use procedures currently being voluntarily utilized 
by operators to provide the required information. Should an activity 
require a CEE, the operator should consult with the EPA to: (a) 
identify the monitoring regime appropriate to that activity, and (b) 
determine whether and how the operator might utilize relevant 
monitoring data collected by the U.S. Antarctic Program. OFA would 
consult with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other interested 
Federal agencies regarding the monitoring regime.
    Environmental documents (e.g., PERM, IEE, CEE) are submitted to 
OFA. Environmental documents are reviewed by OFA, in consultation with 
the NSF and other interested Federal agencies and made available to 
other Parties and the public as required under the Protocol or 
otherwise requested. OFA notifies the public of document availability 
at: https://www.epa.gov/international-cooperation/receipt-environmental-impact-assessments-eias-regarding-nongovernmental.
    The types of nongovernmental activities currently being carried out 
(e.g., ship-based tours, land-based tours, flights, and privately 
funded research expeditions) are typically unlikely to have impacts 
that are more than minor or transitory, thus an IEE is the typical 
level of environmental documentation submitted. For the 1997-1998 
through 2021-2022 austral summer seasons during the time the Rule has 
been in effect, all respondents submitted IEEs except for three PERMs. 
Paperwork reduction provisions in the Rule that are used by the 
operators include: (a) incorporation of material in the environmental 
document by referring to it in the IEE, (b) inclusion of all proposed 
expeditions by one operator within one IEE; (c) use of one IEE to 
address expeditions being carried out by more than one operator; and 
(d) use of multi-year environmental documentation to address proposed 
expeditions for a period of up to five consecutive austral summer 
seasons.
    Form Numbers: None.
    Respondents/affected entities: Entities potentially affected by 
this action are all private sector respondents with activities in 
Antarctica, including tour operators, for which the United States is 
required to give advance notice under paragraph 5 of Article VII of the 
Antarctic Treaty of 1959; this includes all nongovernmental expeditions 
to and within Antarctica organized in or proceeding from the territory 
of the United States.
    Respondent's obligation to respond: Mandatory (40 CFR part 8).
    Estimated number of respondents: 516 (total).
    Frequency of response: Annual.
    Total estimated burden: 2,988 hours (per year). Burden is defined 
at 5 CFR 1320.03(b).
    Total estimated cost: $283,860 (per year), includes $0 annualized 
capital or operation & maintenance costs.
    Changes in the estimates: There is an increase of 1,444 hours in 
the total estimated respondent burden compared with the ICR currently 
approved by OMB. This increased adjustment is the result of an 
anticipated increase in the number of respondent universe, the result 
of the inclusion of more complex information regarding safety and 
environmental issues, more diverse tourist activities and outcomes from 
current Antarctic Treaty Consultative meetings, and the accounting of a 
potential PERM, CEE and Emergency Report submitted by any of the 29 
anticipated operators (every three years).

Courtney Kerwin,
Director, Regulatory Support Division.
[FR Doc. 2023-03821 Filed 2-23-23; 8:45 am]
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