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Funerary Objects from Hancock County, ME, in the Control of the National Park Service. AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior. ACTION: Notice.

Notice is hereby given following provisions of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 25 U.S.C. 3003(d), of completion of the inventory of human remains and associated funerary objects from a site in Hancock County, ME, that are presently in the control of the National Park Service.

A detailed inventory and assessment of these human remains has been made by National Park Service curatorial staff, contracted specialists in physical anthropology and prehistoric archeology, and representatives of the Penobscot Nation, Aroostook Band of Micmac, Houlton Band of Maliseet, and the Passamaquoddy Nation, identified collectively hereafter as the Wabanaki Tribes of Maine.

The partial remains of at least seven individuals (including five adults, one subadult, and one child) were recovered in 1977 from a single grave at the Fernald Point Site (ME Site 43-24), a prehistoric shell midden on Mount Desert Island, within the boundary of Acadia National Park. A bone harpoon head, a modified beaver tooth, and several animal and fish bone fragments were found associated with the eight individuals. Radiocarbon assays indicate the burial site dates between 1035-1155 AD. The human remains and associated funerary objects have been catalogued as ACAD-5747, 5749, 5750, 5751, 5752, 5783, 5784. The partial remains of an eighth individual (an elderly male) was also recovered in 1977 from a second grave at the Fernald Point Site. No associated funerary objects were recovered with this individual. Radiocarbon assays indicate the second burial site dates between 480-680 AD. The human remains have been catalogued as ACAD-5748. The human remains and associated funerary objects of all nine individuals are currently in the possession of the University of Maine, Orono, ME.

Inventory of the human remains and associated funerary objects and review of the accompanying documentation indicates that no known individuals were identifiable. A representative of the Wabanaki Tribes of Maine has identified the Acadia National Park area as a historic gathering place for his people and stated his belief that there exists a relationship of shared group identity between these individuals and the Wabanaki Tribes of Maine. of Maine. The Prehistoric Subcommittee of the Maine State Historic Preservation Office's Archaeological Advisory Committee has found it reasonable to trace a shared group identity from the Late Prehistoric Period (1000-1500 AD) inhabitants of Maine as an undivided whole to the four modern Indian tribes known collectively as the Wabanaki Tribes of Maine on the basis of

geographic proximity; survivals of stone, ceramic and perishable material culture skills; and probable linguistic continuity across the Late Prehistoric/Contact Period boundary. In a 1979 article, Dr. David Sanger, the archeologist who conducted the 1977 excavations at the Fernald Point Site and uncovered the abovementioned burials, recognizes a relationship between Maine sites dating to the Ceramic Period (2,000 B.P.-1600 A.D.) and present-day Algonkian speakers generally known as Abenakis, including the Micmac, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Penboscot, Kennebec, and Pennacook groups.

Based on the above mentioned information, officials of the National Park Service have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2), there is a relationship of shared group identity which which can be reasonably traced between these human remains and associated funerary objects and the Wabanaki Tribes of Maine.

This notice has been sent to officials of the Wabanaki Tribes of Maine. Representatives of any other Indian tribe which believes itself to be culturally affiliated with these human remains and associated funerary objects should contact Len Bobinchock, Acting Superintendent, Acadia National Park, P.O. Box 177, Bar Harbor, ME 04609, telephone: (207) 288-0374, before August 31, 1994. Repatriation of these human remains and associated funerary objects to the Wabanaki Tribes of Maine may begin after that date if no additional claimants come forward.

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Subpart C-Assessment Plan Phase

11.30 What does the authorized official do if an assessment is warranted?

11.31 What does the Assessment Plan include?

11.32 How does the authorized official develop the Assessment Plan?

11.33 What types of assessment procedures are available?

11.34 When may the authorized official use a type A procedure?

11.35 How does the authorized official decide whether to use type A or type B procedures?

11.36 May the authorized official use both type A and type B procedures for the same release?

11.37 Must the authorized official confirm exposure before implementing the Assessment Plan?

11.38 Assessment Plan-preliminary estimate of damages.

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APPENDIX I TO PART 11-METHODS FOR ESTIMATING THE AREAS OF GROUND WATER AND SURFACE WATER EXPOSURE DURING THE PREASSESSMENT SCREEN

APPENDIX II TO PART 11—FORMAT FOR Data INPUTS AND MODIFICATIONS ΤΟ THE NRDAM/CME

APPENDIX III TO PART 11-FORMAT FOR DATA INPUTS AND MODIFICATIONS то THE NRDAM/GLE

AUTHORITY: 42 U.S.C. 9651(c), as amended. SOURCE: 51 FR 27725, Aug. 1, 1986, unless otherwise noted.

Subpart A-Introduction

§ 11.10 Scope and applicability.

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), as amended, 42 U.S.C. 9601 et seq., and the Clean Water Act (CWA), 33 U.S.C. 1251-1376, provide that natural resource trustees may assess damages to natural resources resulting from a discharge of oil or a release of a hazardous substance covered under CERCLA or the CWA and may seek to recover those damages. This part supplements the procedures established under the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), 40 CFR part 300, for the identification, investigation, study, and response to a discharge of oil or release of a hazardous substance, and it provides a procedure by which a natural resource trustee can determine compensation for injuries to natural resources that have not been nor are expected to be addressed by response

actions conducted pursuant to the NCP. The assessment procedures set forth in this part are not mandatory. However, they must be used by Federal or State natural resource trustees in order to obtain the rebuttable presumption contained in section 107(1)(2)(C) of CERCLA. This part applies to assessments initiated after the effective date of this final rule.

[53 FR 5171, Feb. 22, 1988]

§11.11 Purpose.

The purpose of this part is to provide standardized and cost-effective procedures for assessing natural resource damages. The results of an assessment performed by a Federal or State natural resource trustee according to these procedures shall be accorded the evidentiary status of a rebuttable presumption as provided in section 107(f)(2)(C) of CERCLA.

[53 FR 5171, Feb. 22, 1988]

§ 11.12 Biennial review of regulations.

The regulations and procedures included within this part shall be reviewed and revised as appropriate 2 years from the effective date of these rules and every second anniversary thereafter.

§ 11.13 Overview.

(a) Purpose. The process established by this part uses a planned and phased approach to the assessment of natural resource damages. This approach is designed to ensure that all procedures used in an assessment, performed pursuant to this part, are appropriate, necessary, and sufficient to assess damages for injuries to natural resources.

(b) Preassessment phase. Subpart B of this part, the preassessment phase, provides for notification, coordination, and emergency activities, if necessary, and includes the preassessment screen. The preassessment screen is meant to be a rapid review of readily available information that allows the authorized official to make an early decision on whether a natural resource damage assessment can and should be performed.

(c) Assessment Plan phase. If the authorized official decides to perform an assessment, an Assessment Plan, as described in subpart C of this part, is pre

pared. The Assessment Plan ensures that the assessment is performed in a planned and systematic manner and that the methodologies chosen demonstrate reasonable cost.

(d) Type A assessments. The simplified assessments provided for in section 301(c)(2)(A) of CERCLA are performed using the standard procedures specified in subpart D of this part.

(e) Type B assessments. Subpart E of this part covers the assessments provided for in section 301(c)(2)(B) of CERCLA. The process for implementing type B assessments has been divided into the following three phases.

(1) Injury Determination phase. The purpose of this phase is to establish that one or more natural resources have been injured as a result of the discharge of oil or release of a hazardous substance. The sections of subpart E comprising the Injury Determination phase include definitions of injury, guidance on determining pathways, and testing and sampling methods. These methods are to be used to determine both the pathways through which resources have been exposed to oil or a hazardous substance and the nature of the injury.

(2) Quantification phase. The purpose of this phase is to establish the extent of the injury to the resource in terms of the loss of services that the injured resource would have provided had the discharge or release not occurred. The sections of subpart E comprising the Quantification phase include methods for establishing baseline conditions, estimating recovery periods, and measuring the degree of service reduction stemming from an injury to a natural

resource.

(3) Damage Determination phase. The purpose of this phase is to establish the appropriate compensation expressed as a dollar amount for the injuries established in the Injury Determination phase and measured in the Quantification phase. The sections of subpart E of this part comprising the Damage Determination phase include guidance on acceptable cost estimating and valuation methodologies for determining compensation based on the costs of restoration, rehabilitation, replacement, and/or acquisition of equivalent resources, plus, at the discretion of the

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authorized official, compensable value, as defined in §11.83(c) of this part.

(f) Post-assessment phase. Subpart F of this part includes requirements to be met after the assessment is complete. The Report of Assessment contains the results of the assessment, and documents that the assessment has been carried out according to this rule. Other post-assessment requirements delineate the manner in which the demand for a sum certain shall be presented to a responsible party and the steps to be taken when sums are awarded as damages.

[51 FR 27725, Aug. 1, 1986, as amended at 59 FR 14281, Mar. 25, 1994]

§ 11.14 Definitions.

Terms not defined in this section have the meaning given by CERCLA or the CWA. As used in this part, the phrase:

(a) Acquisition of the equivalent or replacement means the substitution for an injured resource with a resource that provides the same or substantially similar services, when such substitutions are in addition to any substitutions made or anticipated as part of response actions and when such substitutions exceed the level of response actions determined appropriate to the site pursuant to the NCP.

(b) Air or air resources means those naturally occurring constituents of the atmosphere, including those gases essential for human, plant, and animal life.

(c) Assessment area means the area or areas within which natural resources have been affected directly or indirectly by the discharge of oil or release of a hazardous substance and that serves as the geographic basis for the injury assessment.

(d) Authorized official means the Federal or State official to whom is delegated the authority to act on behalf of the Federal or State agency designated as trustee, or an official designated by an Indian tribe, pursuant to section 126(d) of CERCLA, to perform a natural resource damage assessment. As used in this part, authorized official is equivalent to the phrase "authorized official or lead authorized official," as appropriate.

(e) Baseline means the condition or conditions that would have existed at the assessment area had the discharge of oil or release of the hazardous substance under investigation not occurred.

(f) Biological resources means those natural resources referred to in section 101(16) of CERCLA as fish and wildlife and other biota. Fish and wildlife include marine and freshwater aquatic and terrestrial species; game, nongame, and commercial species; and threatened, endangered, and State sensitive species. Other biota encompass shellfish, terrestrial and aquatic plants, and other living organisms not otherwise listed in this definition.

(g) CERCLA means the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, 42 U.S.C. 9601 et seq., as amended.

(h) Committed use means either: a current public use; or a planned public use of a natural resource for which there is a documented legal, administrative, budgetary, or financial commitment established before the discharge of oil or release of a hazardous substance is detected.

(i) Control area or control resource means an area or resource unaffected by the discharge of oil or release of the hazardous substance under investigation. A control area or resource is selected for its comparability to the assessment area or resource and may be used for establishing the baseline condition and for comparison to injured

resources.

(j) Cost-effective or cost-effectiveness means that when two or more activities provide the same or a similar level of benefits, the least costly activity providing that level of benefits will be selected.

(k) CWA means the Clean Water Act, as amended, 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq., also referred to as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.

(1) Damages means the amount of money sought by the natural resource trustee as compensation for injury, destruction, or loss of natural resources as set forth in section 107(a) or 111(b) of CERCLA.

(m) Destruction means the total and irreversible loss of a natural resource.

(n) Discharge means a discharge of oil as defined in section 311(a)(2) of the CWA, as amended, and includes, but is not limited to, any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, or dumping of oil.

(0) Drinking water supply means any raw or finished water source that is or may be used by a public water system, as defined in the SDWA, or as drinking water by one or more individuals.

(p) EPA means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

(q) Exposed to or exposure of means that all or part of a natural resource is, or has been, in physical contact with oil or a hazardous substance, or with media containing oil or a hazardous substance.

(r) Fund means the Hazardous Substance Superfund established by section 517 of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986.

(s) Geologic resources means those elements of the Earth's crust such as soils, sediments, rocks, and minerals, including petroleum and natural gas, that are not included in the definitions of ground and surface water resources.

(t) Ground water resources means water in a saturated zone or stratum beneath the surface of land or water and the rocks or sediments through which ground water moves. It includes ground water resources that meet the definition of drinking water supplies.

(u) Hazardous substance means a hazardous substance as defined in section 101(14) of CERCLA.

(v) Injury means a measurable adverse change, either long- or shortterm, in the chemical or physical quality or the viability of a natural resource resulting either directly or indirectly from exposure to a discharge of oil or release of a hazardous substance, or exposure to a product of reactions resulting from the discharge of oil or release of a hazardous substance. As used in this part, injury encompasses the phrases “injury,” “destruction,” and “loss." Injury definitions applicable to specific resources are provided in § 11.62 of this part.

(w) Lead authorized official means a Federal or State official authorized to act on behalf of all affected Federal or State agencies acting as trustees where there are multiple agencies, or an offi

cial designated by multiple tribes where there are multiple tribes, affected because of coexisting or contiguous natural resources or concurrent jurisdiction.

(x) Loss means a measurable adverse reduction of a chemical or physical quality or viability of a natural re

source.

(y) Natural Contingency Plan or NCP means the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Contingency Plan and revisions promulgated by EPA, pursuant to section 105 of CERCLA and codified in 40 CFR part 300.

(z) Natural resources or resources means land, fish, wildlife, biota, air, water, ground water, drinking water supplies, and other such resources belonging to, managed by, held in trust by, appertaining to, or otherwise controlled by the United States (including the resources of the fishery conservation zone established by the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976), any State or local government, any foreign government, any Indian tribe, or, if such resources are subject to a trust restriction on alienation, any member of an Indian tribe. These natural resources have been categorized into the following five groups: Surface water resources, ground water resources, air resources, geologic resources, and biological resources.

(aa) Natural resource damage assessment or assessment means the process of collecting, compiling, and analyzing information, statistics, or data through prescribed methodologies to determine damages for injuries to natural resources as set forth in this part.

(bb) Oil means oil as defined in section 311(a)(1) of the CWA, as amended, of any kind or in any form, including, but not limited to, petroleum, fuel oil, sludge, oil refuse, and oil mixed with wastes other than dredged spoil.

(cc) On-Scene Coordinator or OSC means the On-Scene Coordinator as defined in the NCP.

(dd) Pathway means the route or medium through which oil or a hazardous substance is or was transported from the source of the discharge or release to the injured resource.

(ee) Reasonable cost means the amount that may be recovered for the

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