72214 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 238 / Monday, December 13, 2004 / Notices 

comments to the RACs. Each formal 

RAC meeting will also have time, as 

identified above, allocated for hearing 

public comments. Depending on the 

number of persons wishing to comment 

and time available, the time for 

individual oral comments may be 

limited.

Dated: December 7, 2004. 

John E. Husband, 

Little Snake Field Office Manager and 

Designated Federal Officer for the Northwest 

Colorado RAC.

[FR Doc. 04–27277 Filed 12–10–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–JB–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service 

Oil and Gas Management Plan, Draft 

Environmental Impact Statement Big 

Thicket National Preserve, Texas

AGENCY: National Park Service, 

Department of the Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability of the Oil 

and Gas Management Plan/Draft 

Environmental Impact Statement for Big 

Thicket National Preserve. 

SUMMARY: Pursuant to the National 

Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 42 

U.S.C. 4332(C), the National Park 

Service announces the availability of an 

Oil and Gas Management Plan/Draft 

Environmental Impact Statement 

(OGMP/DEIS) for Big Thicket National 

Preserve, Texas. 

When the Preserve was created, 

surface ownership within the area was 

acquired by the U.S. Government. 

Private entities or the State of Texas 

retained the subsurface mineral interests 

in these lands. Thus, the federal 

government does not own any of the 

subsurface oil and gas rights in the 

Preserve, yet the National Park Service 

is required by its laws, policies and 

regulations to protect the Preserve from 

any actions, including oil and gas 

operations that may adversely impact or 

impair Preserve resources and values. 

The OGMP/DEIS analyzes three 

alternatives that could be implemented 

over the next 15–20 years. Each 

alternative defines a direction for longterm management of existing and 

anticipated oil and gas operations 

associated with the exercise of 

nonfederal oil and gas interests 

underlying the Preserve, and existing 

transpark oil and gas pipelines and 

activities in their associated rights-ofway, while protecting Preserve 

resources, visitor use and experience, 

and human health and safety, and 

preventing impairment to Preserve 

resources and values. This is a 

programmatic management plan. No 

ground-disturbing operations would 

result directly from the management 

decisions made in this document. Prior 

to approving individual projects, further 

environmental analysis, in accordance 

with NEPA, would be completed. 

Alternative A, No Action, is required 

under the National Environmental 

Policy Act and establishes a baseline for 

comparison with the two action 

alternatives, B and C. No Action is 

based on Current Legal and Policy 

Requirements (CLPR) and is a 

continuation of current oil and gas 

management direction in the Preserve. 

Performance standards and specific 

resource protection goals would 

continue to be applied on a case-by-case 

basis under the No Action alternative. 

Geophysical exploration operations may 

be permitted on 80,670 acres (91 percent 

of the Preserve) of which 52,272 acres 

(59 percent of the Preserve) would have 

timing stipulations; and drilling and 

production operations may be permitted 

on 80,639 acres (91 percent of the 

Preserve). No operations would be 

permitted within 500 feet of waterways. 

Alternative B, the agency Preferred 

Alternative, defines Preserve-wide 

resource-specific performance standards 

that would be applied to all existing and 

new oil and gas operations. In this 

alternative, Special Management Areas 

(SMAs) would be formally designated 

for areas where Preserve resources and 

values are particularly susceptible to 

adverse impacts from oil and gas 

operations, and operating stipulations 

specific to each SMA would be applied. 

Nonfederal oil and gas operations could 

be permitted under CLPR in all other 

areas of the Preserve that are not 

designated as SMAs. Geophysical 

exploration operations may be 

permitted on 76,620 acres (87 percent of 

the Preserve) of which 52,272 acres (59 

percent of the Preserve) would have 

timing stipulations; and drilling and 

production operations may be permitted 

on up to 41,859 acres (47 percent of the 

Preserve). No operations would be 

permitted within 500 feet of waterways. 

Alternative C, the Environmentally 

Preferred Alternative, also defines parkwide resource-specific performance 

standards that would be applied to all 

current and new oil and gas operations. 

Similar to Alternative B, SMAs would 

be designated with specific operating 

stipulations for oil and gas operations. 

Geophysical exploration may be 

permitted on 48,475 acres (55 percent of 

the Preserve) and with a timing 

stipulation on 52,272 acres (59 percent 

of the Preserve); and drilling and 

production operations may be permitted 

on 41,859 acres (47 percent of the 

Preserve). No operations would be 

permitted within 500 feet of waterways. 

Impacts are analyzed on the following 

topics: nonfederal oil and gas 

development, air quality, geologic 

resources, water resources, floodplains, 

vegetation, wetlands, fish and wildlife, 

species of special concern, cultural 

resources, visitor use and experience, 

and adjacent land uses and resources.

DATES: The National Park Service will 

accept comments from the public on the 

Draft Environmental Impact Statement 

for a minimum of 60 days after 

publication of this notice.

ADDRESSES: The OGMP/DEIS will be 

available for public review and 

comment at the following locations:

Office of the Superintendent, Big 

Thicket National Preserve 

Headquarters, 3785 Milam Street, 

Beaumont, Texas 77701–4724, 

Telephone: 409–839–2690, ext. 223. 

Office of Minerals/Oil and Gas Support, 

Intermountain Region, National Park 

Service, 1100 Old Santa Fe Trail, 

Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, 

Telephone: 505–988–6095. 

Planning and Environmental Quality, 

Intermountain Region, National Park 

Service, 12795 W. Alameda Parkway, 

Lakewood, Colorado 80228, 

Telephone: 303–969–2377. 

Office of Public Affairs, Department of 

the Interior, 18th and C Streets NW., 

Washington, DC 20240, Telephone: 

202–208–6843, http://www.nps.gov/

bith/pphtml/documents.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Linda Dansby, EIS Project Manager, 

Office of Minerals/Oil and Gas Support, 

Intermountain Region, Santa Fe, New 

Mexico 87504–0728, telephone 505–

988–6095.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: If you 

wish to comment, you may submit your 

comments by any one of the following 

methods: You may mail comments to 

Linda Dansby, EIS Project Manager, 

Office of Minerals/Oil and Gas Support, 

Intermountain Region, Santa Fe, New 

Mexico 87504–0728, telephone 505–

988–6095. You may also comment via 

the Internet to bith_eis@nps.gov. Please 

submit Internet comments as an ASCII 

file avoiding the use of special 

characters and any form of encryption. 

Please also include ‘‘Attn: Big Thicket 

National Preserve DEIS/O&GMP’’ and 

your name and return address in your 

Internet message. If you do not receive 

a confirmation from the system that we 

have received your Internet message, 

contact us directly at 505–988–6095. 

You may also go to the Planning, 

Environment and Public Comment 

website at http://parkplanning.nps.gov

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 238 / Monday, December 13, 2004 / Notices 72215

for further information regarding the 

comment due date, and to submit 

comments. Finally, you may handdeliver comments to the Project 

Manager at 1100 Old Santa Fe Trail, 

Santa Fe, New Mexico. Our practice is 

to make comments, including names 

and home addresses of respondents, 

available for public review during 

regular business hours. Individual 

respondents may request that we 

withhold their home address from the 

record, which we will honor to the 

extent allowable by law. There also may 

be circumstances in which we would 

withhold from the record a respondent’s 

identity, as allowable by law. If you 

wish us to withhold your name and/or 

address, you must state this 

prominently at the beginning of your 

comment. However, we will not 

consider anonymous comments. We 

will make all submissions from 

organizations or businesses, and from 

individuals identifying themselves as 

representatives or officials of 

organizations or businesses, available 

for public inspection in their entirety.

Dated: November 12, 2004. 

John T. Crowley, 

Acting Director, Intermountain Region, 

National Park Service.

[FR Doc. 04–27240 Filed 12–10–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4312–CB–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Reclamation 

Rocky Boy’s/North Central Montana 

Regional Water System, Water 

Conservation Plan

AGENCY: Bureau of Reclamation, 

Interior.

ACTION: Notice of finding.

SUMMARY: The Rocky Boy’s/North 

Central Montana Regional Water System 

Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107–331) 

authorized construction of the Rocky 

Boy’s/North Central Montana Regional 

Water System in north-central Montana. 

To meet the requirements of the Act, the 

Chippewa Cree Tribe and the North 

Central Montana Regional Water 

Authority developed and submitted a 

water conservation plan to Reclamation.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Doug Oellermann, Bureau of 

Reclamation, Montana Area Office, PO 

Box 30107, Billings, Montana 59107–

0137, or at (406) 247–7333 or by e-mail 

at doellermann@gp.usbr.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Finding 

The Chippewa Cree Tribe and the 

North Central Montana Regional Water 

Authority submitted the ‘‘Water 

Conservation Plan, Rocky Boy’s/North 

Central Montana Regional Water 

System’’ dated September 2004, that 

includes prudent and reasonable water 

conservation measures for the operation 

of the Rocky Boy’s/North Central 

Montana Regional Water System that 

have been shown to be economically 

and financially feasible. 

In addition to authorizing 

construction of the Rocky Boy’s/North 

Central Montana Regional Water 

System, the Act authorizes 

appropriations of $202,880,000 to 

Reclamation. The Act states under 

section 906(3) that ’’The Secretary shall 

not obligate funds for construction of 

the core system or the noncore system 

until the Secretary publishes a written 

finding that the water conservation plan 

developed under section 911(a) includes 

prudent and reasonable water 

conservation measures for the operation 

of the Rocky Boy’s/North Central 

Montana Regional Water System that 

have been shown to be economically 

and financially feasible.’’

The requirements for the conservation 

plan are described under section 911 of 

the Act that states: 

‘‘(a) In General—The Tribe and the 

Authority shall develop and incorporate 

into the final engineering report a water 

conservation plan that contains—

‘‘(1) a description of water 

conservation objectives; 

‘‘(2) a description of appropriate water 

conservation measures; and 

‘‘(3) a time schedule for implementing 

the water conservation measures to meet 

the water conservation objectives. 

‘‘(b) Purpose—The water conservation 

plan under subsection (a) shall be 

designed to ensure that users of water 

from the core system, on-reservation 

water distribution systems, and the 

noncore system will use the best 

practicable technology and management 

techniques to conserve water.’’

To fulfill the requirements of section 

911, the Chippewa Cree Tribe and the 

North Central Montana Regional Water 

Authority transmitted a water 

conservation plan (Plan) to Reclamation, 

dated September 2004. The Plan fulfills 

all the requirements of the Act as 

discussed below. 

In fulfillment of section 911(a)(1), the 

Plan contains six reasonable and 

prudent water conservation objectives 

appropriate for the pre-construction 

phase of this multi-phase project: 

1. Keep system per capita water use 

below 196 gallons per capita per day. 

2. Keep variable operation and 

maintenance costs under Final 

Engineering Report (FER) levels. 

3. Develop drought/emergency 

preparedness plans to deal with a 12-

hour project shutdown. 

4. Initiate education/outreach and 

public involvement efforts. 

5. Limit Tiber Reservoir withdrawals 

to FER levels. 

6. Extend the life of the project by 

conserving water. 

To accomplish these objectives, and 

in fulfillment of section 911(a)(2) of the 

Act, the Plan identifies 15 water 

conservation measures (Table 1–1 of the 

Plan) to be implemented starting in Year 

1 of construction with full 

implementation scheduled by Year 5, 

the second year that treated water will 

be delivered to non-core users. 

Pre-Water Delivery 

1. Meter all water deliveries. 

2. Adopt water-conserving rate 

structure for off-reservation systems. 

3. Initiate education/outreach and 

public involvement efforts. 

4. Secure supplies of educational 

materials.

5. Develop drought/emergency 

preparedness plans. 

6. Work with wholesale water 

purchasers to develop individual water 

conservation plans. 

7. Develop strategies and any 

necessary ordinances, regulations, 

contracts or similar arrangements/

documents. 

8. Develop design criteria to reflect 

water conservation considerations. 

First Year of Water Delivery 

1. Maintain pro-active education/

outreach efforts, including public 

meetings, news articles, etc. 

2. Prepare annual report highlighting 

conservation program problems, 

successes, cost-benefit comparisons, etc. 

and make this information available and 

responsive to the public. 

3. Continue to work with wholesale 

water purchasers and the Rocky Boy 

Reservation. 

Long-Term Water Conservation 

Program 

1. An annual review to identify 

problems, suggest improvements, and 

solicit input from concerned parties. 

2. Continued outreach/education 

efforts. 

3. Targeted public relations activities. 

4. Continued enforcement of 

applicable rules and regulations. 

Reclamation Manual Directives and 

Standards (WTR 01–01), published in 

December 1996, identify ‘‘Fundamental 

Water Conservation Measures’’ that are