Maritime Administration February 10, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

By Federal Register notice of January 9, 2009 (74 FR 982-984) the Maritime Administration and the Coast Guard announced the intent to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Atlantic Sea Island Group LLC, Safe Harbor Energy liquefied natural gas deepwater port license application located in Federal Waters approximately 13.5 miles south of the City of Long Beach, New York, 19 miles east of Highlands, New Jersey, and 23 miles southeast of the Ports of New York and New Jersey. The project location was incorrectly noted in the referenced Federal Register notice. The correct proposed location is in the area between the Ambrose-to-Nantucket and Hudson Canyon-to-Ambrose shipping lanes, located at approximately 40[deg]23' N and 73[deg]36' W, in water depth of between 60 and 70 feet covering an area known as Cholera Bank. The EIS will be prepared with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) as a cooperating agency in the environmental review with the Coast Guard. The EIS will meet the requirements of both the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). In addition, the Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration will be working with appropriate state agency representatives from New Jersey to ensure potential impacts and concerns of New Jersey are addressed in the EIS. Publication of this notice began a 30 day scoping process and requested public participation to assist in the identification and determination of the environmental issues to be addressed in the EIS with a deadline for submitting comments of February 9, 2009. In addition to receiving comments at the public scoping meetings on January 27, 2009 and January 29, 2009, instructions were provided for submitting comments to the Department of Transportation (DOT) Docket Management Facility and to the Federal Docket Management System (FDMS). The Coast Guard and Maritime Administration have received several requests to extend the scoping comment period; therefore, upon further consideration the scoping comment period is extended to March 11, 2009.