Notice of Availability of an Environmental Assessment; Importation of Plants in Approved Growing Media Into the United States
| Published date | 10 April 2019 |
| Citation | 84 FR 14340 |
| Record Number | 2019-07071 |
| Section | Notices |
| Court | Animal And Plant Health Inspection Service |
Federal Register, Volume 84 Issue 69 (Wednesday, April 10, 2019)
[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 69 (Wednesday, April 10, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Page 14340]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-07071]
[[Page 14340]]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
[Docket No. APHIS-2018-0101]
Notice of Availability of an Environmental Assessment;
Importation of Plants in Approved Growing Media Into the United States
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of availability and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service is making available a draft programmatic
environmental assessment for the importation of plants in approved
growing media. The programmatic environmental assessment considers the
potential environmental effects of a standardized set of pest risk
mitigations for routine market requests to import plants in approved
growing media. The programmatic environmental assessment would
eliminate the need to prepare a unique environmental assessment for
each routine market request, thereby making the process for approving
imports of plants in approved growing media simpler and more efficient.
We are making the programmatic environmental assessment available to
the public for review and comment.
DATES: We will consider all comments that we receive on or before May
10, 2019.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by either of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2018-0101.
Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Send your comment to
Docket No. APHIS-2018-0101, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD,
APHIS, Station 3A-03.8, 4700 River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-
1238.
Supporting documents and any comments we receive on this docket may
be viewed at http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2018-
0101 or in our reading room, which 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) 799-7039 before coming.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Lydia E. Col[oacute]n, Senior
Regulatory Policy Specialist, Plant Health Programs, Plant Protection
and Quarantine, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, 4700 River
Road Unit 133, Riverdale, MD 20737-1237; [email protected];
(301) 851-2302.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The requirements for importing plants in
growing media (PIGM) consist of overlapping phytosanitary risk
mitigation measures that together comprise a ``systems approach.'' The
systems approach is designed to protect imported PIGM against pests and
diseases during all stages of international trade from the greenhouse
to final product delivery. The goal of the systems approach is to
minimize the likelihood that any quarantine pest species enter the
United States on the commodity proposed for import.
As part of the process for considering PIGM import requests, the
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) currently prepares
an environmental assessment (EA) unique to each country's request to
import a specific plant genus in growing media into the United States.
We also prepare a pest risk assessment (PRA) and risk mitigation
document (RMD) that identify pest mitigation measures that help prevent
the entry of pests on the commodity.
The pest mitigation measures we propose for most PIGM import
requests are very similar from one request to the next, and for this
reason we determined that a single programmatic EA could reduce the
need for repetitive documentation of comparable risks for the majority
of PIGM import requests we receive. To the extent that the PRA and the
RMD prepared for a routine import request do not identify new areas for
consideration, a Finding of No Significant Impact could be issued
without additional environmental documentation.
We are therefore announcing the availability of a draft
programmatic EA that considers the potential environmental effects of a
standardized set of pest risk mitigations for routine market requests
to import plants in approved growing media. Under APHIS' preferred
alternative in the draft EA, requests for the importation of PIGM would
be analyzed in a pest risk analysis and compared to the current systems
approach in the USDA Plants for Planting Manual.\1\ This process would
streamline approvals for the importation of PIGM by relying on the
known combination of pest mitigation measures to provide overlapping or
sequential safeguards to manage a wide range of pests. While the
systems approach and pest surveillance practices would apply to all
PIGM importations, detection of quarantine pests on PIGM would preclude
further importation of that plant from that country until revised
phytosanitary practices are shown to be effective.
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\1\ https://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/manuals/ports/downloads/plants_for_planting.pdf.
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By considering the current systems approach as the default risk
mitigation structure for approving imports of PIGM, APHIS would ensure
continued levels of safeguarding while facilitating international
trade, allowing healthier plant imports, reducing the growing time for
plants to reach markets, reducing unnecessary or repetitive
environmental and other documentation, and increasing the speed of port
of entry inspections.
APHIS' review and analysis of the proposed action are documented in
detail in a draft programmatic EA entitled ``Importation of Plants in
Approved Growing Media (PIGM) into the United States'' (November 2018).
We are making the EA available to the public for review and comment. We
will consider all comments that we receive on or before the date listed
under the heading DATES at the beginning of this notice.
The EA may be viewed on the Regulations.gov website or in our
reading room (see ADDRESSES above for a link to Regulations.gov and
information on the location and hours of the reading room). You may
request paper copies of the EA by calling or writing to the person
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. Please refer to the title
of the EA when requesting copies.
The EA has 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 1b); and (4)
APHIS' NEPA Implementing Procedures (7 CFR part 372).
Done in Washington, DC, this 5th day of April 2019.
Kevin Shea,
Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 2019-07071 Filed 4-9-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-34-P
