Army Department September 25, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On September 22, 2008, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District, Regulatory Division (Corps) in coordination with the Los Angeles Harbor Department (LAHD) completed and published the Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report (EIS/EIR) for the San Pedro Waterfront Project (Project) in the Port of Los Angeles. The Corps and LAHD considered all comments received in preparing the Final EIS/EIR, which is available for a 30-day review. The Final EIS/ EIR includes a draft general conformity determination (see Section 3.2 and Appendix D.7), pursuant to Section 176(c) of the Clean Air Act. A general conformity determination is necessary because Project construction would require Federal action (i.e., issuance of a Corps permit for activities proposed in and over navigable waters and waters of the U.S.) and not all the Federal action's direct and indirect emissions would be below specified de minimis thresholds (40 CFR 93.153(b)). Pursuant to the general conformity regulations (40 CFR part 93, subpart B), general conformity determinations do not have to be included in the EIS and can be separately noticed, but the draft general conformity determination for the Federal action associated with the Project is being included in the Final EIS/EIR in this case.

In a notice published in the Federal Register on June 9, 2009, (74 FR 27294), comments received from various entities were erroneously omitted. To correct, the remaining comments will be listed below with responses from SDDC. Additionally, a notice published in the Federal Register on July 10, 2009, (74, FR 33219) indicated the effective date was no longer July 9, 2009 and that a new effective date would be announced at a later date. The new effective date is listed below.