Notice of Availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Sonoran Valley Parkway, Maricopa County, AZ, 43223-43224 [2013-17265]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• Bureau of Land Management

[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 139 (Friday, July 19, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43223-43224]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-17265]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[LLAZP02000.L51010000.ER0000.LVRWA12A2350.XXX; AZA-34177]


Notice of Availability of the Draft Environmental Impact 
Statement for the Sonoran Valley Parkway, Maricopa County, AZ

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 
1969, as amended (NEPA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has 
prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed 
Sonoran Valley Parkway Project (Parkway) and by this notice is 
announcing the opening of the comment period.

DATES: To ensure that comments will be considered, the BLM must receive 
written comments on the Draft EIS for the Parkway within 45 days 
following the date the Environmental Protection Agency publishes its 
Notice of Availability in the Federal Register. The BLM will announce 
future meetings and any other public involvement activities at least 15 
days in advance through public notices, media releases, and/or 
mailings.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments related to the proposed Parkway by 
any of the following methods:
     Web site: https://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/lands_realty/svpp-eis.html.
     Email: BLM_AZ_SVPP@blm.gov.
     Fax: 623-580-5500.
     Mail: BLM Phoenix District Office, Lower Sonoran Field 
Office, Attention: Kathleen Depukat, Project Manager/Sonoran Valley 
Parkway, 21605 North 7th Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85027-2929.
    Copies of the Draft EIS for the proposed Parkway are available in 
the Phoenix District Office at the above address; the BLM Arizona State 
Office, One North Central Avenue, Suite 800, Phoenix, AZ 85004; and 
public library branches in Goodyear, Maricopa, and Avondale, Arizona, 
as noted in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathleen Depukat, BLM Phoenix District 
Project Manager; telephone 623-580-5681; address 21605 North 7th 
Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85027-2929; email kdepukat@blm.gov. Persons who use 
a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal 
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 to contact the above 
individual during normal business hours. The FIRS is available 24 hours 
a day, 7 days a week, to leave a message or question with the above 
individual. You will receive a reply during normal business hours.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The City of Goodyear submitted an 
application for a permanent 250-foot wide right-of-way (ROW) to the BLM 
for the construction and operation of a two to six-lane, approximately 
15- to 18-mile-long Parkway. The proposed Parkway would connect 
residents of the annexed lands of Goodyear's Sonoran Valley Planning 
Area to the Goodyear, Arizona city center, Maricopa County, Arizona. 
The total length of the proposed Parkway depends on the Alternative 
and/or Sub-alternative selected and authorized by the BLM. The Parkway 
is proposed to be built in three phases of two lanes each. The 
timeframe for the phased construction will be determined based on 
current and future growth in the area. The first phase of the proposed 
Parkway will be built as soon as funding can be obtained by the City of 
Goodyear.
    The majority of the proposed Parkway would be located on the BLM 
lands administered by the Lower Sonoran Field Office; the remainder 
would occur on private and Arizona State Land Department lands. The 
BLM-managed lands within the proposed Parkway area are managed under 
the Lower Sonoran Resource Management Plan. The proposed Parkway would 
commence at the intersection of Rainbow Valley Road and Riggs Road and 
run in a southeasterly direction, within the eastern and northern 
portion of the existing El Paso Natural Gas designated multi-use 
utility corridor, to State Route (SR) 238 at a point just west of the 
community of Mobile, Arizona.
    The BLM's purpose and need for this action is to respond to 
Goodyear's application under Title V of the Federal Land Policy and 
Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA) (43 USC 1761 et seq.), for a ROW grant 
to construct, operate, and maintain a proposed two- to six-lane Parkway 
in compliance with FLPMA, the BLM ROW regulations, and other applicable 
Federal laws. The BLM will decide whether to approve, approve with 
modification, or deny the issuance of a ROW grant to Goodyear for the 
proposed Parkway.
    The BLM published a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an EIS on 
April 2, 2008, in the Federal Register (73 FR 17995). Publication of 
the NOI began a 30-day scoping period, which ended on May 1, 2008. The 
BLM provided a Web site with project information that also described 
the various methods of providing public comment on the project, 
including an email address for the BLM to receive scoping comments 
electronically. Notifications for public scoping meetings were posted 
on the BLM's Web site. Additionally, notices were announced in the 
Federal Register on April 2, 2008, and published in a legal ad in the 
City of Goodyear's InFocus Newsletter in May 2008; postcards were 
mailed to the BLM stakeholder list on May 7-9, 2009.
    Public Scoping Meetings were held on May 28, 2009, at the Goodyear 
City Hall and on May 29, 2008, at the Global Water Conference Center in 
Maricopa and the Mobile Elementary School in Mobile, Arizona. Attendees 
were documented using a voluntary sign-in sheet showing 7 attendees at 
the City of Goodyear, 9 attendees at the Global Water Conference 
Center, and 16 attendees at the Mobile Elementary School. A contractor 
documented the questions and public comments made at the three scoping 
meetings. Attendees included residents from Phoenix, Maricopa, Mobile, 
and Goodyear, Federal and State agency representatives, tribes, and a 
public citizens' group.
    Seventeen comment letters or emails were received within the 
scoping period. The issues addressed in the Draft EIS that shaped the 
Parkway's scope and proposed alternatives include air resources, 
cultural and heritage resources, paleontological resources, soil 
resources, vegetation resources, visual resources, water resources, 
wildland fire management, wildlife and special status species, lands 
and realty, livestock grazing, recreation management, travel 
management, special designations, noise, hazardous materials and public 
safety, and social and economic conditions.
    In addition to the Proposed Action (Alternative A) and No Action 
Alternative, the Draft EIS for the Parkway considers two proposed 
Action Alternatives and two proposed Action Sub-alternative routes that 
were

[[Page 43224]]

analyzed in detail in the Draft EIS. The Sub-alternatives were 
developed to avoid a historic homestead site near the southern terminus 
of the proposed alignment in Mobile at SR 238. The Alternative A is 
within an existing one-mile-wide multi-use utility corridor that 
borders the Sonoran Desert National Monument. The entire Alternative A 
is within Class IV for Visual Resource Management. The project area is 
within known habitat for the Sonoran Desert tortoise and the Tucson 
shovel-nosed snake. There are also two designated wildlife movement 
corridors. The first corridor is the Sierra Estrella-Sonoran Desert 
National Monument linkage for bobcat, desert tortoise, Gila monster, 
javelina, and mule deer as designated in the Arizona Wildlife Linkages 
Assessment. The second corridor is the BLM-designated wildlife corridor 
adopted from the Arizona Game and Fish Department Bighorn Sheep 
Management Plan and present within the proposed Parkway area for all 
alternatives. All Sub-alternatives for the southern terminus will cross 
the congressionally designated Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic 
Trail, the Butterfield Overland Stage Trail, and the Mormon Battalion 
Trail which are located within the Lower Gila Terraces and Historic 
Trails Area of Critical Environmental Concern. However, the locations 
where the proposed Parkway Sub-alternatives would cross the three 
trails are located on private land not managed by the BLM. The EIS does 
include suggested mitigation measures that would address the impacts to 
the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, the Butterfield 
Overland State Trail, and the Mormon Battalion Trail on private land. 
An interdisciplinary approach was used to develop the Draft EIS in 
order to consider the variety of resource issues and concerns 
identified. A modified Proposed Action, Alternative A, including Sub-
alternative G is the BLM's preferred alternative. The BLM will utilize 
and coordinate the NEPA comment period to satisfy the public 
involvement process for Section 106 of the National Historic 
Preservation Act (16 U.S.C. 470), as provided for in 36 CFR 
800.2(d)(3). Native American tribal consultations are being conducted 
in accordance with policy, and tribal concerns, including impacts on 
Indian trust assets, will be given due consideration. Federal, State, 
and local agencies, along with other stakeholders that may be 
interested or affected by the BLM's decision on this project, are 
invited to participate in the public comment process. Please note that 
public comments and information submitted, including names, street 
addresses, and email addresses of persons who submit comments, may be 
available for public review and disclosure at the above address during 
regular business hours (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.), Monday through Friday, 
except holidays.
    Copies of the Draft EIS for the proposed Parkway are available in 
the BLM Arizona State Office, One North Central Avenue, Suite 800, 
Phoenix, AZ 85004; the Phoenix District Office at the above address; 
the Goodyear Branch Library, 250 North Litchfield Road, Suite 185, 
Goodyear, AZ 85338; the Maricopa Public Library, 41600 W. Smith-Enke 
Road, Building 10, Maricopa, AZ 85138; the Old Town Branch 
Library, 328 West Western Avenue, Avondale, AZ 85323; and the Avondale 
City Library, 495 East Western Avenue, Avondale, AZ 85323.
    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, 40 CFR 1506.10.

Dorothea J. Boothe,
Acting, Lower Sonoran Field Manager.
[FR Doc. 2013-17265 Filed 7-18-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-32-P