Department of Defense July 1, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The notice of an open meeting scheduled for July 15, 2005 published in the Federal Register on June 10, 2005 (70 FR 33884) has a new meeting place. The meeting will now be held at the Kimsey Athletic Center, West Conference Room, 4th Floor, West Point, NY.

PolyMet Mining, Inc., has applied to the St. Paul District, Corps of Engineers (Corps) for a permit to discharge fill material into wetlands to facilitate the construction and operation of an open pit copper/ nickel/cobalt/precious metals mine in the low grade polymetallic disseminated magmatic sulfide NorthMet deposit in northeastern Minnesota, approximately 6 miles south of the town of Babbitt. The mining process would require the construction of waste and product stockpiles near the open pit. Ore processing would be conducted at a currently inactive taconite processing plant (modifications would be necessary), and ore tailings would be disposed of in a currently inactive taconite tailings basin adjacent to the processing plant. The processing plant and tailings basin are located about 8 miles west of the NorthMet deposit and about 5 miles north of the town of Hoyt Lakes. Ore would be transported from the mine to the processing plant via an existing railroad line. Construction of a railroad spur to the mine and a connecting railroad line to the plant site would be required. Project plans call for the mining of up to 32,000 tons of ore per day after overburden and waste rock stripping and stockpiling. Mining operations would be conducted 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, over the 20- year life of the project. Processing the ore would involve crushing, grinding, flotation, and hydrometallurgical processing. Cathode copper (high purity metal) would be produced on-site by solvent extraction and electrowinning. The processing would produce other metals (nickel, cobalt, palladium, platinum, and gold) as precipitates rather than as finished metal. The precipitates would be shipped offsite for further refining. The project would require dredging or discharging fill material into an estimated 1,257 acres of wetlands. While some of the wetlands may be isolated, the majority of the wetlands are adjacent to the Partridge River, which is a tributary to the St. Louis River, which is a navigable water of the United States. A specific compensatory wetland mitigation plan has not yet been developed for the project. PolyMet Mining, Inc., has expressed interest in working with various interested federal and state agencies to develop an acceptable plan that would meet federal and state compensatory mitigation requirements. The discharge of fill material into waters of the United States requires a permit pursuant to Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. The final environmental impact statement will be used as a basis for the permit decision and to ensure compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The actions that will take place are the approval of the minutes from the Board of Regents meetings on May 19-20, 2005; departmental reports; and degrees from the USU School of Medicine. The President, USU; Dean, USU School of Medicine; and Dean, USU Graduate School of Nursing will also present reports. These actions are necessary in order to remain an accredited medical school and to pursue our mission, which is to provide trained medical personnel to our uniformed services. This meeting is in Harrisburg, PA to allow observation of a medical field exercise.

The Department of Defense is publishing the unclassified text of a section 36(b)(1) arms sales notification. This is published to fulfill the requirements of section 155 of Public Law 104-164 dated 21 July 1996.

The Defense Security Service (DSS) is proposing to alter an existing exempt system of records. The system of records (F031 DOD A, entitled Joint Personnel Adjudication System (JPAS)) is being transferred from the Department of the Air Force's inventory to the DSS inventory of systems of records, and is being altered to expand the category of records covered and to expand an existing routine use to permit release to the Department of Homeland Security for purposes of determining access to National Security information pursuant to Executive Order 12968.