[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 68 (Monday, April 11, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18352-18353]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E5-1641]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
[Docket No. 03-101-4]
Environmental Impact Statement; Petition for Deregulation of
Genetically Engineered Glyphosate-Tolerant Creeping Bentgrass
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of public meetings and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service will be holding two public scoping forums to promote
further public involvement in the development of an environmental
impact statement as part of our consideration of a petition received
from Monsanto Company and The Scotts Company for a determination of
nonregulated status for a glyphosate-tolerant creeping bentgrass
(Agrostis stolonifera). The information received in response to this
notice, as well as the information received previously, will be
considered during development of an environmental impact statement
prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act.
DATES: We will consider written comments submitted at public scoping
forums that will be held in Chevy Chase, MD on May 3, 2005, and in
Corvallis, OR on May 18, 2005. Each public forum will be held from 4
p.m. to 8 p.m., local time. We will also consider written comments
submitted by other means that we receive on or before June 1, 2005.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
EDOCKET: Go to http://www.epa.gov/feddocket to submit or
view public comments, access the index listing of the contents of the
official public docket, and to access those documents in the public
docket that are available electronically. Once you have entered
EDOCKET, click on the ``View Open APHIS Dockets'' link to locate this
document.
Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Please send four copies
of your comment (an original and three copies) to Docket No. 03-101-4,
Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD,
[[Page 18353]]
APHIS, Station 3C71, 4700 River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-
1238. Please state that your comment refers to Docket No. 03-101-4.
In Person: Comment stations will be available at the
public scoping forums. Specific instructions for submitting written
comments will be provided at the commenting stations.
Meeting Locations: The public scoping forums will be held at the
following locations:
National 4-H Youth Conference Center, Exhibition Hall,
7100 Connecticut Avenue, Chevy Chase, MD. For directions or facilities
information, call (301) 961-2801 or visit http://www.4hcenter.org.
Oregon State University Conference Complex, CH2M Hill
Alumni Center, Cascade Ballroom, 725 SW. 26th Street, Corvallis, OR.
For directions or facilities information, call (541) 737-9300 or visit
http://oregonstate.edu/conferences.
Reading Room: You may read any comments that we receive on this
docket 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.
Other Information: You may view APHIS documents published in the
Federal Register and related information on the Internet at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/webrepor.html.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Susan M. Koehler, BRS, APHIS, 4700
River Road Unit 147, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238; (301) 734-4886.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Nature of Public Forums
As part of the scoping processes for the environmental impact
statement (EIS), the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
will hold two public forums, the first in the Washington, DC area and
the second in Corvallis, OR (see ADDRESSES above). These informal
forums are designed to engage interested individuals from the public
and elicit comments related to the scope of the EIS. The format will
consist of informational posters and comment stations. Attendees will
be able to walk through the forum during the open hours and interact
with other attendees and APHIS personnel. There is no set schedule for
each poster station, so the public may come and go at any time during
the forum period. The goals of these gatherings are to allow APHIS to
better understand the public's interests or concerns with respect to
any potential change in the regulatory status of glyphosate-tolerant
creeping bentgrass and to give the public an additional opportunity to
relate issues or information to APHIS that individuals believe should
be included in the scope of the EIS.
Background
On April 14, 2003 APHIS received a petition (APHIS Petition No. 03-
104-01p) from Monsanto Company (St. Louis, MO) and The Scotts Company
(Gervais, OR) (Monsanto/Scotts), requesting deregulation of a creeping
bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L., synonym A. palustris Huds.) that
has been genetically engineered for tolerance to the herbicide
glyphosate. The Monsanto/Scotts petition states that the subject
creeping bentgrass, designated as event ASR368, should not be regulated
by APHIS because it does not present a plant pest risk. (The petition
is available on the Internet at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/aphisdocs/03_10401p.pdf.)
In a notice published in the Federal Register on January 5, 2004
(69 FR 315-317, Docket No. 03-101-1), APHIS announced the receipt of
the Monsanto/Scotts petition and solicited comments on whether the
subject creeping bentgrass would present a plant pest risk. We
solicited comments concerning our notice for 60 days, ending March 5,
2004.
On September 24, 2004, APHIS published in the Federal Register (69
FR 57257 57260, Docket No. 03-101-2) a notice advising the public of
our decision to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) as part
of our consideration of petition 03-104-01p. Our decision was based on
several factors: (1) Data associated with the petition, (2) a report
prepared by the Weed Science Society of America on the weed management
implications associated with the potential deregulation and
commercialization of glyphosate-tolerant and glufosinate-tolerant
creeping bentgrass varieties (see http://www.wssa.net/society/bentgrass.pdf), (3) our preliminary risk assessment (see http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/aphisdocs/03_10401p_ra.pdf), and (4) public
comments received in response to the January 5, 2004 Federal Register
notice (see https://web01.aphis.usda.gov/Bentgrass.nsf).
Pursuant to the regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality
in 40 CFR 1501.4(d), APHIS initiated the scoping process as mandated by
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended (42
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), beginning with the January 5, 2004 Federal
Register notice. The comment period for our September 24, 2004 notice
of intent was scheduled to close on October 24, 2004. However, we
extended that comment period until December 2, 2004 (Docket No. 03-101-
3, 69 FR 67532-67533), to give interested parties additional time to
respond. (You may view the comments received on our September 24, 2004
notice by going to http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/LPOC/index.html
and locating the entry for Docket No. 03-101-2.)
With this notice, we are continuing the scoping process by inviting
the public to attend public scoping forums. The purpose of these public
scoping forums is to allow the public a venue to interact with APHIS
representatives and to allow APHIS to solicit further information from
the public on potential impacts of glyphosate tolerant creeping
bentgrass on the human environment. We will accept written comments
submitted at the public forums or via the other means described under
ADDRESSES.
Comments that provide information relevant to the scope identified
in the September 24, 2004 Federal Register notice or that identify
other potentially significant environmental issues or alternatives that
should be examined in the context of the EIS process would be
especially helpful. All comments that we received in response to the
January 5 and September 24, 2004 notices referenced above will also be
included as part of this scoping process and need not be resubmitted.
We will fully consider all these comments and the comments resulting
from these public forums in developing a final scope of study and in
preparing the draft EIS. When the draft EIS is completed, we will
publish a notice in the Federal Register announcing its availability
and inviting the public to comment on it. Following our consideration
of the comments received, APHIS will prepare a final EIS; its
availability will also be announced in the Federal Register along with
a 30-day public comment period, after which the Record of Decision will
be issued.
Done in Washington, DC, this 5th day of April 2005.
Elizabeth E. Gaston,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. E5-1641 Filed 4-8-05; 8:45 am]
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