[Federal Register: September 23, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 184)]
[Notices]
[Page 56992-56993]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr23se04-25]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
[Docket No. 01-009-7]
Wildlife Services; Availability of a Supplemental Environmental
Assessment and Decision/Finding of No Significant Impact for Oral
Rabies Vaccination Program
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that we have prepared a
supplemental environmental assessment and proposed decision/finding of
no significant impact relative to oral rabies vaccination programs in
several States. Since the publication of our original environmental
assessment and decision/finding of no significant impact (2001), a
subsequent supplemental decision/finding of no significant impact
(2002), a supplemental environmental assessment and decision/finding of
no significant impact (2003), and an environmental assessment and
decision/finding of no significant impact (2004) concerning expansion
to National Forest System lands, we have determined there is a need to
further expand the oral rabies vaccination program to include 26 States
and the District of Columbia to effectively stop the westward and
northward spread of the rabies virus across the United States and into
Canada. The purpose of the supplemental environmental assessment and
proposed decision/finding of no significant impact is to facilitate
planning, interagency coordination, and program management and to
provide the public with our analysis of potential individual and
cumulative impacts of an expanded oral rabies vaccination program.
DATES: We will consider all comments that we receive on or before
October 25, 2004. Unless we determine that new substantial issues
bearing on the effects of the proposed expansion of the oral rabies
vaccination programs have been raised by public comments on this
notice, the proposed decision/finding of no significant impact will
become final and take effect upon the close of the comment period.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Please send four copies
of your comment (an original and three copies) to Docket No. 01-009-7,
Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3C71, 4700
River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state that your
comment refers to Docket No. 01-009-7.
E-mail: Address your comment to
regulations@aphis.usda.gov. Your comment must be contained in the body
of your message; do not send attached files. Please include your name
and address in your message and ``Docket No. 01-009-7'' on the subject
line.
Agency Web site: Go to http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/cominst.html
for a form you can use to submit an e-mail comment through
the APHIS Web site.
Reading Room: You may read the documents discussed in this notice,
as well as any comments that we receive, in our reading room. The
reading room is located in room 1141 of the USDA South Building, 14th
Street and Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC. Normal reading room
hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays.
To be sure someone is there to help you, please call (202) 690-2817
before coming.
To obtain copies of any of the documents discussed in this notice,
contact Tara Wilcox, Operational Support Staff, WS, APHIS, 4700 River
Road Unit 87, Riverdale, MD 20737-1234; phone (301) 734-7921, fax (301)
734-5157, or e-mail: Tara.C.Wilcox@aphis.usda.gov. When requesting
copies, please specify the document or documents you wish to receive.
Other Information: You may view APHIS documents published in the
Federal Register and related information, including the names of groups
and individuals who have commented on APHIS dockets, on the Internet at
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/webrepor.html.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Dennis Slate, National Rabies
Program Coordinator, Wildlife Services, APHIS, 59 Chennell Drive, Suite
7, Concord, NH 03301-8548; phone (603) 223-9623.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Wildlife Services (WS) program in the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS) cooperates with Federal agencies, State and
local governments, and private individuals to research and implement
the best methods of managing conflicts between wildlife and human
health and safety, agriculture, property, and natural resources.
Wildlife-borne diseases that can affect domestic animals and humans are
among the types of conflicts that APHIS-WS addresses. Wildlife is the
dominant reservoir of rabies in the United States.
On December 7, 2000, a notice was published in the Federal Register
(65 FR 76606-76607, Docket No. 00-045-1) in which the Secretary of
Agriculture declared an emergency and transferred funds from the
Commodity Credit Corporation to APHIS-WS for the continuation and
expansion of oral rabies vaccination (ORV) programs to address rabies
in the States of Ohio, New York, Vermont, Texas, and West Virginia.
On March 7, 2001, we published a notice in the Federal Register (66
FR 13697-13700, Docket No. 01-009-1) to
[[Page 56993]]
solicit public involvement in the planning of a proposed cooperative
program to stop the spread of rabies in the States of New York, Ohio,
Texas, Vermont, and West Virginia. The notice also stated that a small
portion of northeastern New Hampshire and the western counties in
Pennsylvania that border Ohio could also be included in these control
efforts, and discussed the possibility of APHIS-WS cooperating in
smaller-scale ORV projects in the States of Florida, Massachusetts,
Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, and Alabama. The March 2001 notice
contained detailed information about the history of the problems with
raccoon rabies in eastern States and with gray fox and coyote rabies in
Texas, along with information about previous and ongoing efforts using
ORV baits in programs to prevent the spread of the rabies variants or
``strains'' of concern.
Subsequently, on May 17, 2001, we published in the Federal Register
(66 FR 27489, Docket No. 01-009-2) a notice in which we announced the
availability, for public review and comment, of an environmental
assessment (EA) that examined the potential environmental effects of
the ORV programs described in our March 2001 notice. We solicited
comments on the EA for 30 days ending on June 18, 2001. We received one
comment by that date. The comment was from an animal protection
organization and supported APHIS' efforts toward limiting or
eradicating rabies in wildlife populations. The commenter did not,
however, support the use of lethal monitoring methods or local
depopulation as part of an ORV program.
Finally, on August 30, 2001, we published a notice in the Federal
Register (66 FR 45835-45836, Docket No. 01-009-3) in which we advised
the public of APHIS' decision and finding of no significant impact
(FONSI) regarding the use of oral vaccination to control specific
rabies virus strains in raccoons, gray foxes, and coyotes in the United
States. That decision allows APHIS-WS to purchase and distribute ORV
baits, monitor the effectiveness of ORV programs, and participate in
implementing contingency plans that may involve the reduction of a
limited number of local target species populations through lethal means
(i.e., the preferred alternative identified in the EA). The decision
was based upon the final EA, which reflected our review and
consideration of the comments received from the public in response to
our March 2001 and May 2001 notices and information gathered during
planning/scoping meetings with State health departments, other State
and local agencies, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Following the August 2001 publication of our original decision/
FONSI, we determined there was a need to expand ORV programs to include
the States of Kentucky and Tennessee in order to effectively stop the
westward spread of raccoon rabies. Accordingly, we prepared a
supplemental decision/FONSI to document the potential effects of
expanding the programs. We published a notice announcing the
availability of the supplemental decision/FONSI in the Federal Register
on July 5, 2002 (67 FR 44797-44798, Docket No. 01-009-4).
Following the publication of the supplemental decision/FONSI in
July 2002, we determined the need to further expand the ORV program to
include the States of Georgia and Maine to effectively prevent the
westward and northward spread of the rabies virus across the United
States and into Canada. To facilitate planning, interagency
coordination, and program management and to provide the public with our
analysis of potential individual and cumulative impacts of the expanded
ORV programs, we prepared a supplemental EA that addressed the
inclusion of Georgia and Maine, as well as the 2002 inclusion of
Kentucky and Tennessee, in the ORV program. In addition, we prepared a
new decision/FONSI based on the supplemental EA that was published in
the Federal Register on June 30, 2003 (68 FR 38669-38670, Docket No.
01-009-5).
Following the publication of the supplemental EA and decision/FONSI
in June 2003, we determined the need to further expand the ORV program
to portions of National Forest System lands, excluding Wilderness
Areas, within several eastern States. APHIS-WS involvement was expanded
to include National Forest System lands located within the States of
Maine, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia,
West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Maryland, and New Jersey.
Numerous National Forest System lands are located within current and
potential ORV barrier zones. To effectively combat this strain of the
rabies virus, it became increasingly important to bait these large land
masses. We prepared an EA, in cooperation with the USDA-Forest Service,
which addressed the expansion of National Forest System lands in the
ORV program. In addition, we prepared a decision/FONSI based on the EA
that was published in the Federal Register on February 20, 2004 (69 FR
7904-7905, Docket No. 01-009-6).
Recently, we have determined the need to further expand the ORV
program to include 26 States and the District of Columbia to
effectively prevent the westward and northward spread of the rabies
virus across the United States and into Canada. The States where APHIS-
WS involvement would be continued or expanded include: Alabama,
Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire,
New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,
South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The programs' primary goals are to stop the spread of specific raccoon
(eastern States), gray fox (Texas), and coyote (Texas) rabies variants
or ``strains'' of the rabies virus.
The August 2001 EA and decision/FONSI, the July 2002 supplemental
decision/FONSI, the June 2003 supplemental EA and decision/FONSI, the
February 2004 EA and decision/FONSI, and this supplemental EA and
decision/FONSI for expanded ORV program activities in 26 States and the
District of Columbia that are the subject of this notice have been
prepared in accordance with: (1) The National Environmental Policy Act
of 1969 (NEPA), as amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), (2) regulations of
the Council on Environmental Quality for implementing the procedural
provisions of NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), (3) USDA regulations
implementing NEPA (7 CFR part 1), and (4) APHIS' NEPA Implementing
Procedures (7 CFR part 372).
Done in Washington, DC, this 16th day of September 2004.
Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. E4-2346 Filed 9-22-04; 8:45 am]
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