30 June 2006
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[Federal Register: June 30, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 126)]
[Notices]
[Page 37594-37596]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr30jn06-91]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Coast Guard
[USCG-2005-22837]
Nationwide Automatic Identification System, Draft Programmatic
Environmental Impact Statement
AGENCY: U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security.
ACTION: Notice of availability; notice of public meeting; request for
public comments.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) announces the availability of the
draft programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) addressing the
proposed implementation of the Nationwide Automatic Identification
System (NAIS) project. The proposed implementation of the NAIS project
would involve installing receivers, transmitters, transceivers,
repeaters, and other equipment on towers or other structures at up to
450 sites at locations along 95,000 miles of coastline and inland
waterways, as well as the use of selected remote platforms. The USCG
requests public comments on the draft PEIS.
DATES: One public meeting concerning the draft PEIS is planned. The
public meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 9,2006 in Washington,
DC. The public meeting will begin at 9 a.m. and is scheduled to end at
11 a.m. The public meeting may end earlier or later than the stated
time, depending on the number of persons wishing to speak. Comments and
related material submitted in response to the request for public
comments must reach the Docket Management Facility on or before August
14, 2006.
ADDRESSES: The public meeting will be held at the USCG Headquarters
building (Transpoint Building), 2100 Second Street, SW., Washington, DC
20593.
You may submit comments identified by Coast Guard docket number
USCG-2005-22837 to the Docket Management Facility at the U.S.
Department of Transportation (DOT). To avoid duplication, please use
only one of the following methods to submit comments or other
materials:
(1) Web site: http://dms.dot.gov.
(2) Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590-0001.
(3) Fax: 202-493-2251.
(4) Delivery: Room PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif
Building, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m and 5
p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. The telephone number is
202-366-9329.
(5) Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If you have questions on this notice,
please call or e-mail Anita Allen, Ph.D., NAIS Environmental Manager,
at 202-474-3292 or aallen@comdt.uscg.mil. If you have questions on
viewing the docket, call Ms. Andrea M. Jenkins,
[[Page 37595]]
Program Manager, Docket Operations at 202-366-0271.
The draft PEIS is available for viewing online at the DOT's docket
management Web site: http://dms.dot.gov under docket number 22837. A
copy of the draft PEIS can also be obtained on the NAIS project Web
site: http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-a/AIS/ or by contacting Dr. Allen.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Public Meeting
We invite you to comment at the public meeting on the proposed
action and the evaluation presented in the draft PEIS.
Please notify the USCG prior to the public meeting if you wish to
speak at the public meeting (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT). In
order to allow everyone a chance to speak, the USCG may limit speaker
time, or extend the meeting hours, or both. You must identify yourself,
and any organization you represent, by name. Your remarks will be
recorded or transcribed for inclusion in the public docket. You may
submit written material at the public meeting, either in place of or in
addition to speaking. Written material must include your name and
address.
Verbal and written input will be included in the public docket.
Public docket materials will be made available to the public on the
Docket Management Facility's Docket Management System (DMS). See
``Request for Comments'' for information about DMS and your rights
under the Privacy Act.
If you plan to attend the public meeting, and need special
assistance such as sign language interpretation or other reasonable
accommodation, please notify the USCG (see FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT) at least 3 business days in advance. Include your contact
information, as well as information about your specific needs.
Request for Comments
As a part of the process to prepare the PEIS, the USCG requests
public comments or other relevant information on the draft PEIS. The
public meeting is not the only opportunity you have to comment on the
draft PEIS. In addition to, or in place of attending the meeting,
persons or organizations can submit material to the Docket Management
Facility during the public comment period (see DATES). The USCG will
consider all comments submitted during the public comment period, and
subsequently will prepare the final PEIS. The USCG will announce the
availability of the final PEIS and once again give interested parties
an opportunity to review the document. (If you want the notice for the
final PEIS to be sent to you, please contact the personnel identified
in FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.)
All comments received will be posted, without change, to http://dms.dot.gov
and will include any personal information you have
provided. We have an agreement with the Department of Transportation
(DOT) to use the Docket Management Facility. Please see DOT's ``Privacy
Act'' paragraph below.
Submitting comments: If you submit a comment, please include your
name and address, identify the docket number for this notice (USCG-
2005-22837) and give the reason for each comment. You may submit your
comments by electronic means, mail, fax, or delivery to the Docket
Management Facility at the address under ADDRESSES; but please submit
your comments by only one means. If you submit them by mail or
delivery, submit them in an unbound format, no larger than 8\1/2\ by 11
inches, suitable for copying and electronic filing. If you submit them
by mail and would like to know that they reached the Facility, please
enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard or envelope. We will
consider all comments received during the comment period.
Viewing comments and documents: To view comments, go to http://dms.dot.gov
at any time, click on ``Simple Search,'' enter the last
five digits of the docket number for this rulemaking, and click on
``Search.'' You may also visit the Docket Management Facility in room
PL-401 on the Plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street,
SW., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays.
Privacy Act: Anyone can search the electronic form of all comments
received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review the
Department of Transportation's Privacy Act Statement in the Federal
Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477), or you may visit
http://dms.dot.gov.
Proposed Action
The USCG published a notice of intent to prepare a PEIS for the
proposed implementation of the NAIS project in the Federal Register (70
FR 70862, November 23, 2005). The proposed action requiring
environmental review is a DHS Level I investment and USCG major systems
acquisition that would involve installing receivers, transmitters,
transceivers, repeaters, and other equipment on towers or other
structures at up to 450 sites along 95,000 miles of coastline, other
inland waterways, and remote platforms such as satellites, offshore oil
and gas platforms and data buoys.
The purpose of the proposed action evaluated in the draft PEIS is
to establish a nationwide network of receivers and transmitters to
capture, display, exchange, and analyze AIS-generated information. The
proposed action would satisfy the USCG's need to enhance homeland
security while carrying out its mission to ensure marine safety and
security, preserve maritime mobility, protect the marine environment,
enforce U.S. laws and international treaties, and perform search and
rescue (SAR) operations.
The AIS is an international standard for ship-to-ship, ship-to-
shore, and shore-to-ship communication of information, including vessel
identity, position, speed, course, destination, and other data of
critical interest for navigational safety and maritime security. The
proposed implementation of the NAIS project would provide the USCG with
the capability to receive and distribute information from shipboard AIS
equipment and transmit information to AIS equipped vessels to enhance
Maritime Domain Awareness. The proposed project would provide detection
and identification of vessels carrying AIS equipment approaching or
operating in the maritime domain where little or no vessel tracking
currently exists.
Alternatives To the Proposed Action
The technical and operational requirements for NAIS require the
system to be operational in both inland navigable waters and the open
ocean out to 2,000 nautical miles (NM) offshore. No single
implementation alternative could meet the technical and operational
requirements of this large and geographically variable area. As a
result, the USCG believes that a combination of implementation
alternatives would be needed to meet the technical and operational
requirements. The proposed implementation of the NAIS project includes
using a combination of the following coverage mechanisms:
(1) NAIS Short-Range Coverage--Shore-Based Radio Frequency (RF)
Sites. The establishment of shore-based RF sites was the only
alternative found by the USCG to be viable for achieving short-range
NAIS coverage. Short-range NAIS coverage includes inland navigable
waters, and out to 50 nautical miles (NM) offshore. Shore-based RF
sites would consist of AIS equipment
[[Page 37596]]
mounted on towers, buildings, bridges, or other structures. The USCG
anticipates the majority of these sites would be tower-based. The USCG
would be faced with the choice of installing AIS equipment at new sites
(``new build''); installing AIS equipment adjacent to existing
communications equipment (``collocation''); or, program wide, using a
combination of the collocation and new build sites for shore-based RF
sites.
For the proposed implementation of the NAIS project, the USCG has
chosen to bound or bracket the programmatic environmental analysis of
the shore-based RF sites by evaluating three potential NAIS siting
alternatives: All New Tower Builds, Combination of Collocations and New
Tower Builds, and All Collocations.
(2) NAIS Long-Range Coverage--Satellites. For long-range coverage,
satellite services could be leased from commercial satellite providers
or the government. The USCG is currently assessing technology
development to support this capability. The analysis of this
alternative assumes that the initial technology development would yield
a deployable solution. The satellite system is envisioned to consist of
a number of low earth orbit satellites to provide the needed long-range
maritime tracking of vessels (i.e., coverage requirement to receive AIS
signals with a minimum 4-hour reporting rate out to 2,000 NM offshore).
(3) NAIS Long-Range Coverage--Offshore Platforms and Data Buoys.
NAIS long-range coverage could be provided, in part, by using existing
offshore platform and data buoy capabilities to provide additional
coverage availability. The USCG is currently evaluating the
effectiveness of deploying AIS base stations and AIS receivers on
various offshore Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms and National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data buoys. Potential offshore
platforms of interest include existing active U.S. Department of the
Interior (DOI) Minerals Management Service (MMS)-regulated oil and gas
infrastructures in the Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, and Alaska regions.
Dated: June 22, 2006.
J.P. Currier,
Rear Admiral, United Stated Coast Guard, Assistant Commandant for
Acquisition.
[FR Doc. E6-10256 Filed 6-29-06; 8:45 am]
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