Department of the Interior December 21, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Park Service (NPS) is preparing an EIS on the recreational use of off-road vehicles (ORV) along nine trails in the Nabesna area of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The purpose of the EIS is to evaluate a range of alternatives for managing recreational off-road vehicle use on the following trails: Caribou Creek, Lost Creek, Trail Creek, Reeve Field, Boomerang Lake, Soda Lake, Suslota Lake, Copper Lake and Tanada Lake. The EIS will be used to guide the management of recreational ORV use on these trails in the Nabesna area of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. It may also form the basis for either a special regulation to designate ORV routes and areas or a compatibility finding to issue permits for ORV use in accordance with current regulations. The EIS will assess potential environmental impacts associated with a range of reasonable alternatives for managing recreational ORV impacts on park resources and values such as soils, vegetation, wetlands, wildlife, visitor experience, scenic quality, cultural resources and subsistence opportunities. In addition to the No Action alternative, this EIS will evaluate a proposed action that would authorize recreational ORV use on trails that can be maintained to a standard that reduces or eliminates adverse impacts. Other alternatives include: authorizing recreational ORV use on some or all nine trails after making improvements to address degraded conditions along trail alignments, and not authorizing recreational ORV use on any trails. Public input is sought on this range of alternatives. This EIS is being prepared in accordance with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4331 et seq.), and its implementing regulations at 40 CFR part 1500. Scoping: The NPS requests input from federal and state agencies, local governments, private organizations, recreational users, and the public on the scope of issues to be addressed in this EIS. Scoping comments are being solicited. NPS representatives will be available to discuss issues, resource concerns and the planning process at public scoping meetings. Scoping meetings will be held in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Tok, Glennallen, and Slana, Alaska in early 2008. When public meetings have been scheduled, their dates, times, and locations will be announced in local newspapers and posted on the NPS Planning, Environment, and Public Comment (PEPC) Web site at https:// parkplanning.nps.gov/WRST. Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire commentincluding your personal identifying informationmay be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. We will always make submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as representatives of or officials of organizations or businesses, available for public inspection in their entirety.

Notice is hereby given that a meeting of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Advisory Commission will be held at 9:30 a.m., on Friday, January 18, 2008, at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park Headquarters, 1850 Dual Highway, Hagerstown, Maryland 21740.

As required by 43 CFR 2650.7(d), notice is hereby given that an appealable decision approving lands for conveyance pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act will be issued to Chugach Alaska Corporation for lands located in the Prince William Sound, Alaska. Notice of the decision will also be published four times in the Anchorage Daily News.

In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA, 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA, 43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared the Draft Oil Shale and Tar Sands Resource Management Plan Amendments To Address Land Use Allocations in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming and Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). By this notice, the BLM is announcing the opening of a 90-day public review and comment period for the PEIS. The planning area lies within the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.

Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) is notifying the public that Reclamation and the State of North Dakota have prepared a Final EIS for the Red River Valley Water Supply Project (RRVWSP). The purpose of the RRVWSP is to supply water to meet the water needs of the people and industries in the Red River Valley through the year 2050. The project's needs were established by Congress in the Dakota Water Resources Act of 2000. The project needs are defined as municipal, rural, and industrial supplies; water quality; aquatic environment; and water conservation measures. Reclamation published a Draft EIS on December 30, 2005. Following public comments on the Draft EIS and the addition of new information, Reclamation published a Supplemental Draft EIS on January 31, 2007. The comment period for the Draft EIS started on December 30, 2005 and continued through April 25, 2007 with review of the Supplemental Draft EIS. Revisions were made to the Final EIS to incorporate responses to comments on the Supplemental Draft EIS and new information. However, these revisions do not significantly impact the analysis or results presented in the Supplemental Draft EIS. The primary changes are inclusion of a final biological assessment prepared in compliance with the Endangered Species Act, an analysis of forecasted depletions and sedimentation on the Missouri River mainstem reservoir system, and a literature review of the best available climate change information. The Final EIS includes written responses to all public comments on both the DEIS and SDEIS. It also identifies the GDU Import to Sheyenne River Alternative as Reclamation's and the State of North Dakota's preferred alternative.

Pursuant to Section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Casper Field Office announces its intent to prepare an EIS on the potential impacts of the application to lease a tract of Federal coal. The EIS will be called the Hay Creek II Coal EIS. Under the provisions of 43 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 3425.1, the BLM received the following application to lease a maintenance tract of Federal coal in Campbell County, Wyoming: Kiewit Mining Properties Inc. applied for a maintenance coal lease for approximately 1448.873 acres (approximately 148 million tons of recoverable coal) in a maintenance tract of Federal coal adjacent to the Buckskin Mine. The tract, which is referred to as the Hay Creek II Tract, has been assigned case number WYW172684.

This proposed rule would amend 30 CFR parts 260 and 203 to conform the regulations to the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Santa Fe Snyder Corp., et al. v. Norton (the Decision). That decision found that certain provisions of the MMS regulations interpreting section 304 of the Deep Water Royalty Relief Act are contrary to the requirements of the statute.