International Marine Mammal Project, Earth Island Institute – 2006-02-19 09:19:02
This President’s Day Weekend, please do something patriotic for Hawai’ian marine life!
The US Navy is again taking aim at our oceans, asking for special permission to conduct their annual Anti-Submarine Warfare training exercises off the coast of Hawai’i this summer, called RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific). This is important marine mammal habitat, especially for endangered humpback whales and the Hawai’ian monk seal. As noted below, at least one stranding event of melon-headed whales occurred in conjunction with a past RIMPAC training excercise.
Thanks for your help on this short notice! Abe and George would be proud of you for standing up for our wildlife heritage!
— Mark J. Palmer
URGENT REQUEST for everyone who submitted comments on the Navy’s Undersea Warfare Training Range.
As some of you know, the Navy has issued an Environmental Assessment for its RIMPAC exercise, scheduled to take place off Hawaii in late June and July. RIMPAC is the major ASW exercise for the Pacific fleet, and involves numerous boats from multiple navies. It was during the 2004 RIMPAC exercise that the mass stranding of melon-headed whales took place off Kaua’i. (A copy of the Navy’s public notice for RIMPAC appears below.)
Now the Navy is attempting a bait and switch. With RIMPAC, it is explicitly using the SAME methodology it uses for the East Coast Training Range — but while everyone is focused on the range, RIMPAC is flying under the radar.
To make sure the Navy doesn’t get away with this, simply send in the same comments you submitted on the training range. Here’s what to do:
• (1) Enclose your comments on the Undersea Warfare Training Range.
• (2) Draft a brief cover letter as follows:
On behalf of YOUR ORGANIZATION, I am submitting these comments on the Draft Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Assessment (DSPEA) that the Navy has prepared for its RIMPAC 2006 exercise. 71 Fed. Reg. 3276. As the DSPEA indicates, the Navy’s environmental analysis for the RIMPAC exercise uses essentially the same methodology that the Navy used in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for its Undersea Warfare Training Range.
Please therefore add my comments (attached) on the Undersea Warfare Training Range– particularly with regard to impact thresholds, monitoring, and mitigation, and to any other issue that may be relevant–to the Administrative Record for RIMPAC.
• (3) Send your comments to the following address:
Commander
U.S. Pacific Fleet (N01CE1)
251 Makalapa Drive
Pearl Harbor, HI 96860
PLEASE NOTE:
THE DEADLINE FOR PUBLIC COMMENTS EXPIRES TUESDAY, 21 FEB.
As long as your comments are postmarked by then, the Navy will have to consider them.
Michael Jasny
Natural Resources Defense Council
4479 W. 5th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V6R1S4
604-736-9386
mjasny@telus.net
FEDERAL REGISTER
71 FR 3276-01, 2006 WL 138834 (F.R.)
NOTICES
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Department of the Navy
Notice of Availability for the Draft 2006 Supplemental Environmental Assessment to the 2002 Rim of the Pacific Programmatic Environmental Assessment, Hawaii
Friday, January 20, 2006
AGENCY: Department of the Navy, DoD.
*3276 ACTION: Notice.
SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy *3277 Act (NEPA) of 1969 and the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR, Parts 1500-1508) implementing the procedural provisions of NEPA, the United States Department of the Navy (Navy) gives notice that a draft Supplement to the Programmatic Environmental Assessment (Supplemental PEA) has been prepared to evaluate the environmental impacts associated with implementation of the 2006 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises.
RIMPAC 2006 is scheduled to be conducted from about June 26 to July 28, 2006. The United States National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce, is a cooperating agency in the preparation of this draft Supplemental PEA.
DATES: Written comments on the draft EA are requested not later than February 21, 2006. Comments should be specific as possible. Comments should be mailed to: Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet (N01CE1), 251 Makalapa Drive, Pearl Harbor, HI 96860. For additional information, write to the above address or call Pacific Fleet Environmental Office at 808-474-7836.
ADDRESSES: Copies of the Supplemental PEA addressing the proposed action are available by written request to the above address. Copies of the draft Supplemental PEA are also available for public review at the project Web site at http://www.smdcen.us/rimpac06/.
In addition, the document may be reviewed at the following locations:
1. Wailuku Public Library, 251 High Street, Wailuku, HI 96793 (Maui).
2. Hilo Public Library, 300 Waianaenue Avenue, Hilo, HI 96720.
3. Hawaii State Library, Hawaii and Pacific Section Document Unit, 478 South King Street, Honolulu, HI 96813 (Oahu).
4. Lihue Public Library, 4344 Hardy Street, Lihue, HI 96766 (Kauai).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT: Pacific Fleet Environmental Office at 808-474- 7836 or write to Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet (N01CE1), 251 Makalapa Drive, Pearl Harbor, HI 96860.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
RIMPAC has been conducted at various locations throughout the State of Hawaii and surrounding ocean areas biennially for the last 36 years. The purpose of RIMPAC is to implement a selected set of exercise activities that are combined into a multinational, sea control/power projection Fleet training exercise in a multi-threat environment.
RIMPAC exercises enhance the abilities of a multinational Fleet force to communicate and operate in simulated hostile scenarios. In 2002, a Programmatic EA (PEA) was prepared in support of the RIMPAC exercises. The PEA identified the Proposed Action as the set of exercises and locations that would be used for RIMPAC activities for the foreseeable future. It identified the maximum usage of ongoing training assets and exercises that could be conducted within a given RIMPAC event and evaluated the impacts on the environment within those bounds.
The FONSI for the RIMPAC PEA, signed June 11, 2002, concluded that as long as future RIMPAC exercises did not exceed the evaluated set of activities, the Proposed Action could be implemented without supplemental NEPA documentation. Thus, the scope of each future RIMPAC exercise has been evaluated for any emergent science affecting impact analysis and for consistency with the 2002 RIMPAC PEA and its FONSI.
The 2006 Supplement to the 2002 RIMPAC PEA was prepared to evaluate additional training event locations and to review all proposed RIMPAC 2006 activities to the analysis in the 2002 RIMPAC PEA and a 2004 Supplement to ensure all proposed activities are addressed. The review included an evaluation of: training levels (personnel and equipment) and types of equipment; facilities and procedures for implementing RIMPAC at each installation or range; and changes in the affected environment or environmental sensitivities. In addition, the 2006 Supplemental PEA also includes a description of the Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) operations, and the ASW acoustic effects modeling completed for RIMPAC 2006.
The only change being proposed is the location for conducting the Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) at the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) and Niihau. No new training events are proposed. The NEO training event locations at PMRF and Niihau, when added to the Proposed Action assessed in the RIMPAC PEA and 2004 Supplement, form the Proposed Action for the purpose of the draft 2006 Supplemental PEA.
Accordingly, the analysis conducted in the draft Supplemental PEA focused on the following resources: terrestrial and marine environments and cultural resources.
Specifically, the 2006 Supplemental PEA includes analysis related to mid-frequency active sonar based on application of emergent science. Long-term studies of the quantification and effects of exposure of marine mammal species to acoustic emissions are progressing, and Navy, in coordination with the NMFS, is incorporating the results into this Supplemental PEA. The Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) training events being analyzed are not new and have taken place with no significant changes over the previous 19 RIMPAC exercises.
However, new scientific information has led to the ability to quantitatively identify harassment levels, as defined in the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), through the use of newly derived threshold criteria metrics. Additionally, scientific advances in effects-analysis modeling of sound on marine mammals have provided Navy the ability to predict cumulative effects on marine species due to a proposed action. Due to these advances in scientific information, the 2006 Supplemental PEA provides an effects-analysis on marine mammals that may be affected by the RIMPAC training events that use mid-frequency active sonar.
Based on the assumptions and analyses in the draft SPEA, the proposed action appears to have no significant impacts on the environment. However, Navy will consider and incorporate public comments into the final SPEA before making a decision on the environmental significance of the proposed action. If warranted, a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) will be prepared and the final Supplemental PEA and FONSI will be made available for public review on or about May 5, 2006.
Dated: January 10, 2006.
Eric McDonald,
Lieutenant Commander, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, U.S. Navy, Federal Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. E6-647 Filed 1-19-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3810-FF-P
71 FR 3276-01, 2006 WL 138834 (F.R.)
END OF DOCUMENT
Mark J. Palmer is the Assistant Director
of the International Marine Mammal Project
and Director of Wildlife Alive
Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway, Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 788-3666 x139
(415) 788-7324 (fax)
www.earthisland.org
