Indian Affairs Bureau November 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice advises the public that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) as joint Lead Agencies, with the Crow Tribe of Indians, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), as Cooperating Agencies, intend to gather information necessary for preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Extension of the Absaloka Coal Mine on the Crow Indian Reservation, Montana. The proposed BIA action, taken under the Indian Mineral Development Act, is the approval of a coal lease by the Crow Tribe to Westmoreland Resources Inc. (WRI) and associated approval of allotted Indian and Crow tribal surface estate use agreements. In addition, the OSMRE will use this EIS to support a decision on the application for a surface mining permit to be filed by WRI involving the same acreage, commonly known as the Absaloka Mine ``South Extension;'' the MDEQ will use it in considering approval of permit revisions to facilitate mining of coal adjacent to the South Extension that is presently under the Absaloka Mine, which MDEQ administers; and the EPA may use the EIS in considering issuance of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits for any point source water discharges on the Reservation. The purpose of this project is to extend the operating life of the Absaloka Mine and continue to provide an economic base for the Crow Tribe, while providing an energy source for the generation of electricity at distant power plants. This notice also announces a public scoping meeting to identify potential issues and alternatives to be considered in the EIS.

The Department of the Interior (DOI), Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (OIEED), is seeking comments on the collection of information necessary for utilization of the Loan Guaranty, Insurance, and Interest Subsidy Program. This is necessary to continue the use of forms for this program approved by the Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The public will have the opportunity to comment on the time and expense required by these forms to access the program.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) owns, or has an interest in, irrigation facilities located on various Indian reservations throughout the United States. We are required to establish rates to recover the costs to administer, operate, maintain, and rehabilitate those facilities. We request your comments on the proposed rate adjustments.

On August 8, 2006, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of the Secretary proposed to amend several of their regulations related to Indian trust management (see 71 FR 45173). The purpose of the amendments is to further fulfill the Secretary's fiduciary responsibilities to federally recognized tribes and individual Indians and to meet the Indian trust management policies in the Indian Land Consolidation Act (ILCA), as amended by the American Indian Probate Reform Act of 2004 (AIPRA). These amendments address Indian trust management issues in the areas of probate, probate hearings and appeals, tribal probate codes, life estates and future interests in Indian land, the Indian land title of record, and conveyances of trust or restricted land. There is also an ``Application for Consolidation by Sale'' form that is associated with one of these amendments. This notice reopens the comment period for an additional 60 days to January 2, 2007. The BIA and Office of Secretary are reopening the comment period for an additional 60 days to ensure that all interested parties, including tribes and individual Indians, have the opportunity to review the proposed rule and prepare their comments.