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Notice of Availability of the Ambler Road Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, Alaska Publication: Federal Register Agency: Bureau of Land Management Byline: Steven M. Cohn Date: 20 October 2023 Subjects: American Government  , Roads & Highways
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 202 (Friday, October 20, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72532-72533]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-22870]
[[Page 72532]]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[BLM_AK_FRN_MO4500174129]
Notice of Availability of the Ambler Road Draft Supplemental
Environmental Impact Statement, Alaska
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of
1969, as amended, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of
1976, as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announces the
availability of a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS) for the proposed Ambler Road project.
DATES: To afford the BLM the opportunity to consider comments in the
Final Supplemental EIS, please ensure that the BLM receives your
comments within 60 days following the date the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) publishes its Notice of Availability (NOA) of the Draft
Supplemental EIS in the Federal Register. The EPA usually publishes its
NOAs on Fridays. The BLM will hold public meetings and subsistence
hearings in the vicinity of potentially affected communities. The
dates, times, and locations of the meetings will be announced in
advance through public notices, media releases, and/or mailings.
ADDRESSES: The Draft Supplemental EIS is available for review on the
BLM ePlanning project website at https://www.blm.gov/AmblerRoadEIS. You
may submit written comments related to the Ambler Road Draft
Supplemental EIS by any of the following methods:
Website: https://www.blm.gov/AmblerRoadEIS.
Mail: Ambler Road Draft Supplemental EIS Comments, BLM
Fairbanks District Office, 222 University Avenue, Fairbanks AK 99709.
Hand Deliver comments to: BLM, 222 University Avenue,
Fairbanks, Alaska 99709.
Documents pertinent to this proposal may be examined: online at
https://www.blm.gov/AmblerRoadEIS; at the BLM Alaska State Office, BLM
Alaska Public Information Center, 222 West 7th Avenue (First Floor),
Anchorage, Alaska; or at the Fairbanks District Office, 222 University
Avenue, Fairbanks, Alaska.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stacie McIntosh, Ambler Road
Supplemental EIS Project Manager, telephone: 907-474-2398; email
address: s05mcint@blm.gov. You may also request to be added to the
mailing list for the Supplemental EIS.
Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of
hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or
TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services for contacting
Ms. McIntosh. Individuals outside the United States should use the
relay services offered within their country to make international calls
to the point-of-contact in the United States.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The BLM has prepared the Ambler Road Draft
Supplemental EIS. The Draft Supplemental EIS is in response to an
application for an industrial road right-of-way (ROW) in north-central
Alaska across federal public lands and other lands that was initially
approved through a Joint Record of Decision (JROD) issued in July 2020,
by the BLM and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, after publication of
the original Ambler Road EIS in March 2020. The road would run from the
existing Dalton Highway to the Ambler Mining District. The area
involved lies south of the Brooks Range, north of the Yukon River, west
of the Dalton Highway and east of the Purcell Mountains. The Alaska
Industrial Development and Export Authority, a public corporation of
the State of Alaska, is the applicant.
In May 2022, in two lawsuits challenging the JROD and associated
environmental analyses, the U.S. District Court for the District of
Alaska (District Court) granted voluntary remand at the request of the
Department of the Interior (DOI) due to deficiencies in the BLM's
analysis of subsistence impacts under Alaska National Interest Lands
Conservation Act (ANILCA) Section 810 and consultation with Tribes
pursuant to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act
(NHPA). In the motion for remand, the DOI committed to address the
identified legal deficiencies, consider new information about declines
in salmon and caribou populations, reconsider the appropriate scope of
the area of potential effects for purposes of the NHPA, and supplement
the EIS, as appropriate, to more thoroughly assess the impacts and
resources identified as areas of concern in the two lawsuits
challenging the now-remanded JROD.
The Draft Supplemental EIS analyzes: the No Action Alternative;
Alternative A, the applicant's 211 mile-long proposed road alignment
beginning at Mile 161 of the Dalton Highway and extending west, ending
at the Ambler River; Alternative B, which starts and ends in the same
location as Alternative A but contains a shorter route through Gates of
the Arctic National Preserve; and Alternative C, an alternate route
that starts at Mile 59.5 of the Dalton Highway and extends 332 miles
northwest, ending at the Ambler River. The Army Corps of Engineers is a
cooperating agency on the Supplemental EIS.
Section 810 of ANILCA requires BLM to evaluate the effects of the
alternatives presented in the Draft Supplemental EIS on subsistence
uses and needs, and to hold public hearings if it finds that any
alternative may significantly restrict subsistence uses. The BLM has
found in the evaluation of subsistence impacts that Alternatives A, B,
and C and the cumulative case analyzed in the Draft Supplemental EIS
may significantly restrict subsistence uses in multiple communities.
Therefore, the BLM will hold public hearings on subsistence resources
and activities in conjunction with the public meetings on the Draft
Supplemental EIS in the vicinity of potentially affected communities.
Information about subsistence hearings will be available on the project
website listed in the ADDRESSES section, and will be announced through
additional public notices, news releases, and mailings.
The input of Alaska Native Tribes and Corporations is of critical
importance to this Supplemental EIS. Therefore, during the NEPA
process, the BLM will continue to consult with potentially affected
federally recognized Tribes on a government-to-government basis, and
with affected Alaska Native Corporations in accordance with Executive
Order 13175, as well as Public Law 108-199, Div. H, sec. 161, 118 Stat.
452, as amended by Public Law 108-447, Div. H, sec. 518, 118 Stat.
3267, and other Department and Bureau policies. We respectfully request
participation in consultation by Alaska Native Tribes and Alaska Native
Corporations to provide their views and recommendations on the
analysis, including effects from the proposed activities. The BLM will
hold individual consultation meetings upon request.
It is important that reviewers provide their comments at such times
and in such manner as are useful to the agency's preparation of the
Final Supplemental EIS. Therefore, comments should be provided prior to
the close of the comment period and should clearly articulate the
reviewer's concerns and contentions. Comments received in response to
this solicitation, including names and addresses of those who comment,
will be part of the public record for this proposed action.
[[Page 72533]]
Comments submitted anonymously will be accepted and considered.
Before including your address, phone number, email address, or
other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be
aware that your entire comment--including your personal identifying
information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you can
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be
able to do so.
Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6(b)
Steven M. Cohn,
State Director, Alaska.
[FR Doc. 2023-22870 Filed 10-19-23; 8:45 am]
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