Department of Defense August 31, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Corps of Engineers (Corps) is proposing to amend its regulations to establish a permanent restricted area in the waters of the Potomac River in the vicinity of Marine Corps Base (MCB) Quantico, located in Quantico, Virginia. The establishment of a permanent restricted area is necessary to reflect the current security and safety needs at MCB Quantico, including protection of military assets at the Marine Corps Air Facility (MCAF) Quantico, which include the Presidential Helicopter Squadron. The assets located on MCAF Quantico are considered national assets of strategic value and require the increased protection obtained by restricting all public access to within 500 meters of the MCAF shoreline. The proposed restricted area provides standoff from most small arms weapons, acts as a security buffer, and assists USMC security forces in determining intent amongst heavy boat traffic. Additionally, there is an extreme hazard to small craft and vessels operating in close proximity to the MCAF due to jet and prop wash from heavy jet and rotary wing aircraft operating at low altitudes while conducting takeoff and landing operations. The proposed restricted area protects public safety by denying vessels access to this danger. The restricted area is also required to protect public health by preventing vessels from disturbing a planned environmental remediation area located in the vicinity of MCAF. The restricted area will extend approximately 500 meters from the shoreline of MCB/MCAF Quantico and will include the Chopawamsic Creek channel.

The U.S. Army requested that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) revise the regulation for the restricted area in the Cape Fear River and its tributaries at Sunny Point Army Terminal, Brunswick County, North Carolina, by renaming the marker buoys and specifying the latitude and longitude for those buoys. There are no other changes proposed for this restricted area regulation. The purpose of the proposed rule is to correct the buoys designating the boundary of the restricted area which provide security for the facility, and prevent acts of terrorism, sabotage, or other criminal acts against the facility, including vessels loading and offloading at the Sunny Point Army Terminal. In the ``Rules and Regulations'' section of the Federal Register, we are publishing this change to the restricted area regulation as a direct final rule without prior proposal because we view this as a non-controversial adjustment to our restricted area regulations and anticipate no adverse comment. We have explained our reasons for this approval in the preamble to the direct final rule. If we receive no adverse comment, we will not take further action on this rule and it will go into effect. If we receive adverse comment, we will withdraw the direct final rule and it will not take effect. We will

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is proposing to revise its regulations to establish a restricted area to change the navigability status of a portion of Eagle River within the boundaries of Fort Richardson, Alaska as well as an adjacent portion of Eagle Bay in the Knik Arm. More specifically, the restricted area is to include all waters of Eagle River downstream from the Bravo Bridge as well as the portion of Eagle Bay east of a demarcation line to extend from two points of Fort Richardson land along northern and southern shores of the Bay. This amendment would prohibit vessels and persons from entering affected waters of Eagle Bay and Eagle River in order to enhance safety and security. This portion of Eagle River runs through an active military range munitions impact area. This portion of Eagle Bay could be subjected to hazardous levels of noise during certain training exercises; Army control of this area is also necessary to prevent unauthorized access into the impact area. The restricted area is necessary to protect the public from entering an extremely hazardous area.