Department of Defense April 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness announces a proposed public information collection and seeks public comment on the provisions thereof. Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed information collection; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the information collection on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District (Corps) with (New York State Department of Environmental Conservation as local sponsor) is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in accordance with Council on Environmental Quality's NEPA regulations; Corps' principles and guidelines as defined in Engineering Regulations (ER) 1105-2-100, Planning Guidance Notebook, and ER 200-2-2, Procedures for Implementing NEPA; and other applicable Federal and State environmental laws for the proposed Atlantic Coast of New York, East Rockaway Inlet to Rockaway Inlet and Jamaica Bay Coastal Storm Risk Management Feasibility Study. The study is re-assessing the feasibility of coastal storm risk management alternatives to be implemented within the congressionally authorized project area. This overall study area includes the entire Rockaway peninsula as well as the back-bay communities surrounding Jamaica Bay. During Hurricane Sandy, both Rockaway and Jamaica Bay communities were severely affected with large areas subjected to erosion, storm surge, and wave damage along the Atlantic Ocean shoreline and flooding of communities within and surrounding Jamaica Bay. Along the Rockaways, the Atlantic Ocean surge and waves exceeded the island height, resulting in flow of water across the peninsula, and contributing to the flooding along the shoreline of the interior of Jamaica Bay. Hurricane Sandy illustrated the need to re-evaluate the entire peninsula and back-bay area as a system, when considering risk-management measures. Acknowledging the amount of analyses required to comprehensively reevaluate the study area considering the influence of the Atlantic Ocean shorefront conditions on the back-bay system, a single Hurricane Sandy General Reevaluation Report and EIS (GRR/EIS) will be prepared. The Corps will use a tiered process to facilitate project decision-making. The EIS will build upon the extensive Atlantic shoreline alternatives analysis and environmental and technical studies and outreach conducted to date. The proposed tiering approach will allow the study to focus on both broad overall Jamaica Bay-wide issues while simultaneously assessing site specific impacts, costs and mitigation measures for the shorefront and back-bay alternatives. The scope of analysis in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 will be appropriate to the level of detail necessary for those documents and will receive input from the public and reviewing agencies. The Tier 1 shoreline analysis will provide the basis for the alternatives to problems associated with erosion, storm surge, and wave damage along the Atlantic Ocean shoreline the relationship of the shoreline with the back-bay. The Tier 2 analysis will specifically address the flooding of communities within and surrounding Jamaica Bay.

The Department of the Navy (DoN) reaffirms its August 15, 2012, Record of Decision to employ up to four Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active (SURTASS LFA) sonar systems with certain geographical restrictions and mitigation monitoring designed to reduce potential adverse effects on the marine environment, including operating LFA sonar systems in the waters in which the Hawaiian Islands Stock Complex of common bottlenose dolphins could occur. The August 15, 2012, Record of Decision implemented the preferred alternative, Alternative 2, identified in the 2012 Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (FSEIS)/Supplemental Overseas Environmental Impact Statement (SOEIS) for SURTASS LFA sonar. Following litigation challenging the adequacy of the 2012 FSEIS/ FSOEIS, the District Court for the Northern District of California determined that the DoN failed to use the best available data when it determined potential impacts from the employment of SURTASS LFA sonar systems on one stock of common bottlenose dolphins in Hawaiian waters rather than the more current information that shows five stocks of common bottlenose dolphins in Hawaiian waters. Accordingly, DoN prepared a narrowly-tailored FSEIS/SOEIS to remedy this deficiency. The National Marine Fisheries Service was a cooperating agency in accordance with 40 CFR 1501.6 for the development of the narrowly- tailored FSEIS/FSOEIS.

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 July 21, 1996.