Department of Defense January 18, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to section 102(2)(c) of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 as implemented by the Council on Environmental Quality regulations (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and Public Law 102-484 section 2834, as amended by Public Law 104-106 section 2867, the Department of the Army and the California State Coastal Conservancy (SCC) hereby give notice of intent to prepare a joint Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report (SEIS/EIR) for the Hamilton Wetland Restoration Project (HWRP), Marin County, California to consider alternative methods to transfer dredged material collected from various navigational dredging projects within San Francisco Bay to the HWRP site for beneficial re-use in the construction of tidal and seasonal wetlands. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is the lead agency for this project under NEPA. The SCC is the lead agency for this project under CEQA. A pubic scoping meeting will be held to solicit comments on the environmental scope of the project and the appropriate scope of the SEIS/EIR.

The Defense Science Board Task Force on Munitions System Reliability will meet in closed session on January 14, 2005, at SAIC, 4001 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA, and February 2-4, 2005, at Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, CA. This Task Force will review the efforts thus far to improve the reliability of munitions systems and identify additional steps to be taken to reduce the amount of unexploded ordnance resulting from munitions failures. The Task Force will: Conduct a methodologically sound assessment of the failure rates of U.S. munitions in actual combat use; review ongoing efforts to reduce the amount of unexploded ordnance resulting from munitions systems failures, and evaluate whether there are ways to improve or accelerate these efforts; and identify other feasible measures the U.S. can take to reduce the threat that failed munitions pose to friendly forces and noncombatants. 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 these meetings, the Defense Science Board Task Force will: conduct a methodologically sound assessment of the failure rates of U.S. munitions in actual combat use; review ongoing efforts to reduce the amount of unexploded ordnance resulting from munitions systems failures, and evaluate whether there are ways to improve or accelerate these efforts; and identify other feasible measures the U.S. can take to reduce the threat that failed munitions pose to friendly forces and noncombatants. In accordance with section 10(d) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463, as amended (5 U.S.C. App. 2), it has been determined that these Defense Science Board Task Force meetings concern matters listed in 5 U.S.C. 552b(c)(1) and that, accordingly, these meetings will be closed to the public.