Notice2022-17719
Notice of Availability of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Alabama Trustee Implementation Group Alabama Swift Tract Living Shoreline Project: Final Supplemental Environmental Assessment
Primary source
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Published
August 17, 2022
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
This Alabama Trustee Implementation Group (TIG) Alabama Swift Tract Living Shoreline Project: Final Supplemental Environmental Assessment (Final Supplemental EA) describes, and in conjunction with the associated Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), selects the preferred restoration alternative, which consists of the removal of rocks from the Bon Secour Bay bottom near the original Swift Tract Living Shoreline Project's action area and the placement of the removed rocks on a nearby breakwater. The proposed action falls within the general scope of the purpose and need for the original Swift Tract Living Shoreline Project, which was identified and evaluated in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Programmatic and Phase III Early Restoration Plan and Early Restoration Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Phase III ERP/PEIS). The proposed action is also consistent with the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Final Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PDARP/PEIS), as it focuses on the restoration of injuries to Alabama's natural resources and services--in particular to Restoration Type: "Wetlands, Coastal, and Nearshore Habitats," using funds made available in early restoration and through the DWH Consent Decree. The Federal Trustees of the Alabama TIG have determined that the implementation of the Final Supplemental EA is not a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment within the context of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Therefore, they have concluded a FONSI is appropriate, and, therefore, an Environmental Impact Statement will not be prepared.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 158 (Wednesday, August 17, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 158 (Wednesday, August 17, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50609-50610]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-17719]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[RTID 0648-XC109]
Notice of Availability of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Alabama
Trustee Implementation Group Alabama Swift Tract Living Shoreline
Project: Final Supplemental Environmental Assessment
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: This Alabama Trustee Implementation Group (TIG) Alabama Swift
Tract Living Shoreline Project: Final Supplemental Environmental
Assessment (Final Supplemental EA) describes, and in conjunction with
the associated Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), selects the
preferred restoration alternative, which consists of the removal of
rocks from the Bon Secour Bay bottom near the original Swift Tract
Living Shoreline Project's action area and the placement of the removed
rocks on a nearby breakwater. The proposed action falls within the
general scope of the purpose and need for the original Swift Tract
Living Shoreline Project, which was identified and evaluated in the
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Programmatic and Phase III Early
Restoration Plan and Early Restoration Programmatic Environmental
Impact Statement (Phase III ERP/PEIS). The proposed action is also
consistent with the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Final Programmatic
Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan and Final Programmatic
Environmental Impact Statement (PDARP/PEIS), as it focuses on the
restoration of injuries to Alabama's natural resources and services--in
particular to Restoration Type: ``Wetlands, Coastal, and Nearshore
Habitats,'' using funds made available in early restoration and through
the DWH Consent Decree. The Federal Trustees of the Alabama TIG have
determined that the implementation of the Final Supplemental EA is not
a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human
environment within the context of the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA). Therefore, they have concluded a FONSI is appropriate, and,
therefore, an Environmental Impact Statement will not be prepared.
ADDRESSES:
Obtaining Documents: You may access the Final Supplemental EA from
the ``News'' section of the Alabama TIG website at: <a href="http://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/restoration-areas/alabama">http://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/restoration-areas/alabama</a>.
Alternatively, you may request a CD of the Final Supplemental EA (see
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT below).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration--Stella Wilson, NOAA Restoration Center, 850-332-4169,
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#4c093f3829202029621b25203f23220c22232d2d622b233a"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="7d380e0918111118532a14110e12133d13121c1c531a120b">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Introduction
On April 20, 2010, the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater
Horizon, which was being used to drill a well for BP Exploration and
Production, Inc. (BP), in the Macondo prospect (Mississippi Canyon 252-
MC252), experienced a significant explosion, fire, and subsequent
sinking in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in an unprecedented volume of
oil and other discharges from the rig and from the wellhead on the
seabed. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is the largest off shore oil
spill in U.S. history, discharging millions of barrels of oil over a
period of 87 days. In addition, well over one million gallons of
dispersants were applied to the waters of the spill area in an attempt
to disperse the spilled oil. An undetermined amount of natural gas was
also released into the environment as a result of the spill.
The Deepwater Horizon Federal and State natural resource trustees
(Trustees) conducted the natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) for
the Deepwater Horizon oil spill under OPA (OPA; 33 U.S.C. 2701 et
seq.). Pursuant to OPA, Federal and State agencies act as trustees on
behalf of the public to assess natural resource injuries and losses and
to determine the actions required to compensate the public for those
injuries and losses. OPA further instructs the designated trustees to
develop and implement a plan for the restoration, rehabilitation,
replacement, or acquisition of the equivalent of the injured natural
resources under their trusteeship, including the loss of use and
services from those resources from the time of injury until the time of
restoration to baseline (the resource quality and conditions that would
exist if the spill had not occurred) is complete. The Deepwater Horizon
Trustees are:
<bullet> U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), as represented by
the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau
of Land Management;
[[Page 50610]]
<bullet> National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), on
behalf of the U.S. Department of Commerce;
<bullet> U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA);
<bullet> U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA);
<bullet> State of Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration
Authority (CPRA), Oil Spill Coordinator's Office (LOSCO), Department of
Environmental Quality (LDEQ), Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
(LDWF), and Department of Natural Resources (LDNR);
<bullet> State of Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality;
<bullet> State of Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources and Geological Survey of Alabama;
<bullet> State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection
and Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; and
<bullet> State of Texas: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas
General Land Office, and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The Trustees reached and finalized a settlement of their natural
resource damage claims with BP in an April 4, 2016, Consent Decree
approved by the United States District Court for the Eastern District
of Louisiana. Pursuant to that Consent Decree, restoration projects in
the Alabama Restoration Area are selected and implemented by the
Alabama TIG.
Background
Notice of Availability of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Alabama
Trustee Implementation Group Draft Living Shoreline Supplemental
Environmental Assessment (Draft Supplemental EA) was published in the
Federal Register at 87 FR 10339 on February 24, 2022. The public
comment period for the Draft Supplemental EA closed on March 28, 2022.
One public comment was received during the comment period. It was
reviewed and taken into consideration in the preparation of the Final
Supplemental EA. All correspondence received is provided in the DWH
Administrative Record.
Overview of the Alabama TIG Final Supplemental EA
As described in Section III of this Final Supplemental EA (the
``OPA Summary''), the Alabama TIG has determined that the proposed
corrective action does not alter its original conclusions for the Swift
Tract Living Shorelines Project under OPA and its implementing
regulations. Thus, the Alabama TIG concludes that implementation of the
corrective action proposed in this Supplemental EA does not require
further OPA evaluation, and this Supplemental EA focuses its analysis
on the potential environmental impacts of the proposed corrective
action under NEPA.
This Supplemental EA provides NEPA analysis for the Swift Tract
Living Shorelines Project proposed corrective action by supplementing
the NEPA analysis for the Phase III ERP/PEIS. The supplemental NEPA
analysis provided in this Swift Tract Supplemental EA augments and
incorporates by reference the applicable sections (Chapter 11, Affected
Environment, Environmental Consequences for the Swift Tract Restoration
Project) of the Phase III ERP/PEIS. This supplemental analysis
considers any additional environmental impacts that would result from
implementation of the corrective action that are not described and
analyzed in the Phase III ERP/PEIS.
The Final Supplemental EA evaluates the proposed removal of rocks
from the bay bottom near the Swift Tract Living Shoreline Project
action area and the placement of the removed rocks on a nearby The
Nature Conservancy (TNC) breakwater. The proposed rock removal and
breakwater placement locations are adjacent to, but outside of, the
project action area identified in the Final Phase III ERP/PEIS. Due to
the close proximity of the new removal and placement areas to the
existing Swift Tract breakwater, the Affected Environment for the
proposed removal and placement areas would be the same as that
evaluated for the Swift Tract breakwater in the Phase III ERP/PEIS. The
environmental consequences of the proposed corrective action are also
anticipated to fall generally within the scope of the environmental
consequences evaluated for the original project. Therefore, the
Environmental Consequences reviewed in the Swift Tract project
evaluation, in Chapter 11, Section 11.4 of the Final Phase III ERP/
PEIS, are reviewed in the Supplemental EA to evaluate the likely
environmental consequences of the proposed corrective action and the
``No Action'' alternatives to determine whether implementation of the
proposed corrective action may alter the conclusions made in the Final
Phase III ERP/PEIS. Under the ``No Action'' alternative, the rocks
currently located on the water bottom would not be removed from the
water bottom and would instead be left in place.
In the Supplemental EA, the Alabama TIG concludes that
implementation of the proposed action would not significantly impact
the quality of the human environment and, therefore, that an
environmental impact statement for this action is not necessary. The
Alabama TIG thus proposes implementation of the preferred corrective
action, removal of the rock material from the bay bottom near the
living shoreline constructed during the original Swift Tract Living
Shoreline Project and placement of that rock material on the nearby TNC
breakwater.
Administrative Record
The documents comprising the Administrative Record for the
Supplemental EA can be viewed electronically at <a href="http://www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon/adminrecord">http://www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon/adminrecord</a>.
Authority
The authority of this action is the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33
U.S.C. 2701 et seq.) and its implementing Oil Pollution Act Natural
Resource Damage Assessment regulations found at 15 CFR part 990 and the
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.).
Dated: August 12, 2022.
Carrie Dianne Robinson,
Director, Office of Habitat Conservation, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 2022-17719 Filed 8-16-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
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