[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 216 (Monday, November 9, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60384-60385]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-29859]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
Notice of Availability of Final Director's Order #77-1: Wetland
Protection and Final Procedural Manual #77-1: Wetland Protection
AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: The National Park Service (NPS) is converting and updating its
current system of internal instructions in conformance with a new
system of NPS internal guidance documents. As part of this process, the
NPS recently made available for public review and comment (63 FR 45254)
a draft Director's Order #77-1: Wetland Protection and a draft
Procedural Manual #77-1: Wetland Protection. The Director's Order will
revise NPS policies, standards, and requirements
[[Page 60385]]
for implementing Executive Order 11990: Protection of Wetlands, and the
Procedural Manual will establish NPS procedures for implementing the
Director's Order within units of the National Park System.
The public review period for the Director's Order and Procedural
Manual ended on September 24, 1998. Comments received during this
period have been carefully considered and have been incorporated into
the documents, as appropriate (see SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION). The
comments were mostly related to clarifying certain points in the
Director's Order and Procedural Manual, and did not result in any
substantive changes to the policies, requirements, standards, or
procedures proposed in the draft documents.
The NPS now announces the availability of the final Director's
Order #77-1 and final Procedural Manual #77-1. The previous NPS wetland
protection guidance, found in the 1980 NPS Floodplain Management and
Wetland Protection Guidelines (45 FR 35916, minor revisions in 47 FR
36718), is now rescinded.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NPS received four sets of written
comments during the public review. One commenter was concerned that
Director's Order #77-1 and Procedural Manual #77-1 might apply to
activities conducted by a private party on lands that are outside of
NPS units. The NPS believes that Section 2.0 of the Director's Order
and Section 4.1.B of the Procedural Manual clearly indicate that these
policies, requirements, and procedures apply only to activities
conducted by the NPS that are either on or otherwise affect lands
managed by the agency. A minor wording change was incorporated into
Section 4.1.B of the Procedural Manual to help clarify this point.
A state agency recognized the rationale for the 0.1 acre wetland
impact threshold for required compensation (Section 5.2.C of the
Procedural Manual), but expressed concern that this threshold could
potentially lead to unacceptable cumulative impacts in arid areas where
small wetlands are especially important. The NPS believes that these
concerns are adequately addressed in several ways. First, these
procedures and NPS National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures
do not allow an action to be ``categorically excluded'' from the NEPA
process if there is the potential for adverse impacts on wetlands.
Therefore, such cumulative impacts would have to be addressed in an
Environmental Assessment or an Environmental Impact Statement, and
justified in the required wetland ``Statement of Findings'' (Section
5.3.D and 5.3.E of the Procedural Manual). Second, we believe that the
required wetland avoidance and impact minimization steps outlined in
Section 5.2 of the Procedural Manual, along with other NPS natural
resources policies and procedures, make the choice of important desert
aquatic habitats for development sites highly unlikely. Third, such
actions would also be subject to the permitting provisions of Section
404 of the Clean Water Act. For these reasons, the NPS is convinced
that such areas are adequately protected from such cumulative impacts,
and no changes were made on this subject in the final documents.
A federal agency found the Director's Order and Procedural Manual
to be clear and useful to NPS staff and the public, and provided a
number of comments intended to further clarify information in the areas
of wetland definitions, assessment methodologies, delineation manuals,
compensation, inventories, and treatment of incidental wetlands. We
found these suggestions to be useful, and incorporated a number of them
via minor modifications of Sections 2.3 and 2.4 of the Director's Order
and Sections 2.2.C, 2.2.D, 3.2, 4.1.A, 4.2.B, and 4.2.C of the
Procedural Manual.
DATES: Director's Order #77-1: Wetland Protection and Procedural Manual
#77-1: Wetland Protection became effective on October 22, 1998.
ADDRESSES: Director's Order #77.1: Wetland Protection and Procedural
Manual #77.1: Wetland Protection are available on the Internet at the
following address: http://www.nps.gov/refdesk/DOrders/index.htm
Requests for copies should be sent to: Joel Wagner, National Park
Service, Water Resources Division, P.O. Box 25287, Denver, CO 80225.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joel Wagner at (303) 969-2955.
Dated: October 30, 1998.
Michael Soukup,
Associate Director, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science.
[FR Doc. 98-29859 Filed 11-6-98; 8:45 am]
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