4246 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 19 / Wednesday, January 29, 1997 / Notices

• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

approval under Section 404 of the Clean

Water Act,

• State of Alaska, Department of

Natural Resources tideland permit and

lease or easement, and

• State of Alaska, Department of

Environmental Conservation

authorization under Section 401 of the

Clean Water Act.

Public Comment

Federal, State, and local agencies,

potential contractors, and other

individuals or organizations who may

be interested in, or affected by, the

decision are invited to participate in the

scoping process. This process will

include:

1. Identification of potential issues;

2. Identification of issues to be

analyzed in depth;

3. Determination of potential

cooperating agencies and assignment of

responsibility; and

4. Examination of various alternatives.

The Forest Supervisor will hold

public meetings during the planning

process. Interested people are invited to

comment. The comment period on the

Draft EIS will be 45 days from the date

the Notice of Availability appears in the

Federal Register.

The Forest Service believes, at this

early stage, it is important to give

reviewers notice of several draft

environmental impact statements must

structure their participation in the

environmental review process. First,

reviewers of the draft environmental

impact statements must structure their

participation in the environmental

review of the proposal so it is

meaningful and alerts an agency to the

reviewer’s position and contentions

(Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp.

v. NRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 533 [1978]).

Also, environmental objections that

could have been raised at the Draft EIS

stage may be waived if not raised until

after the completion of the final

environmental impact statement or

dismissed by the courts (City of Angoon

v. Hodel, 803 F.2d 1016, 1022 [9th Cir.

1986] and Wisconsin Heritages, Inc. v.

Harris, 490 F. Supp. 1334, 1338 [E.D.

Wis. 1980]). Because of these court

rulings, it is very important that those

interested in this proposed action

participate by the close of the 45 day

comment period so substantive

comments and objections are made

available to the Forest Service at the

time when we can meaningfully

consider them and respond to them in

the final environmental impact

statement.

To assist the Forest Service in

identifying and considering issues and

concerns on the proposed action,

comments on the draft environmental

impact statement should be as specific

as possible. It is helpful if comments

refer to specific pages or chapters of the

draft environmental impact statement.

Comments may also address the

adequacy of the draft environmental

impact statement or the merits of the

alternatives formulated and discussed in

the statement. Reviewers may wish to

refer to the Council on Environmental

Quality regulations for implementing

the procedural provisions of the

National Environment Policy Act in 40

CFR 1503.3 while addressing these

points.

The responsible official for the

decision is Abigail R. Kimbell, Forest

Supervisor, Stikine Area, Tongass

National Forest, Alaska Region,

Petersburg, Alaska.

Dated: January 13, 1997.

Abigail R. Kimbell,

Forest Supervisor.

[FR Doc. 97–2120 Filed 1–28–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3410–11–M

Rural Housing Service

Refinancing Community Facilities

Loans

AGENCY: Rural Housing Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: This Notice describes the

Rural Housing Service (RHS)

Community Facilities (CF) loan program

refinancing policies, informs

commercial lenders of the availability of

a list of eligible CF borrowers who have

the potential to refinance outstanding

debt, and invites cooperative and

private credit sources to participate in

refinancing loans. This action ensures

that CF loan program borrowers are

aware of lenders that are willing to

provide reasonable rates and terms for

refinancing. The intended effect of this

action is to increase the number of

cooperative or private credit sources

which are actively involved with RHS’s

refinancing efforts.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Chadwick O. Parker, Loan Specialist,

Rural Housing Service, USDA, Room

6314, South Agriculture Building, 1400

Independence Avenue SW.,

Washington, D.C. 20250, Telephone:

(202) 720–1502.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Program Affected

This action affects the RHS program

listed in the Catalog of Federal Domestic

Assistance as 10.766 Community

Facilities Loans.

Discussion of Notice

The RHS CF loan program provides

credit to public entities such as

municipalities, counties, specialpurpose districts, Indian tribes, and

nonprofit corporations. Eligible CF loan

purposes are to construct, enlarge,

extend, or otherwise improve

community facilities providing essential

services. The loan program is

administered in a manner which

ensures that it does not compete with

credit available from private sources.

Loan agreements require financially

capable borrowers to refinance debts

owed to the RHS when other credit is

available at reasonable rates and terms

from a cooperative or private credit

source.

The RHS would like to further

develop its public/private partnerships

while enhancing its refinancing efforts.

As part of these efforts, each Rural

Development State Office, which

administers the CF loan program in the

field, will maintain a current listing of

borrowers who have the potential to

refinance. The RHS will also maintain a

national list on its World Wide Web site

at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/agency/

rhs/cf/cf.htm.

The RHS will develop a unified

database of lenders interested in this

refinancing initiative as part of their

ongoing effort to establish a stronger

alliance with private sector lenders. The

RHS requests that interested lenders

contact the State Office in each State

where they have active lending

operations.

Dated: January 21, 1997.

Jan Shadburn,

Acting Administrator, Rural Housing Service.

[FR Doc. 97–2197 Filed 1–28–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3410–XV–U

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Bureau of the Census

[Docket No. 961213356–6356–01]

RIN 0607–XX25

Census Tract Program for Census

2000—Proposed Criteria

AGENCY: Bureau of the Census,

Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of proposed program

revisions and request for comments.

SUMMARY: Census tracts are relatively

permanent small-area geographic

divisions of a county or statistically
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 19 / Wednesday, January 29, 1997 / Notices 4247

1 Includes parishes in Louisiana; boroughs and

census areas in Alaska; independent cities in

Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia; that

portion of Yellowstone National Park in Montana;

districts in American Samoa and the Virgin Islands

of the United States; municipalities in the Northern

Mariana Islands; municipios in Puerto Rico; and the

entire area constituting the District of Columbia;

and Guam. This notice will refer to all these entities

collectively as ‘‘counties.’’

equivalent entity 1 defined for the

tabulation of decennial census data and

selected other statistical programs. The

primary goal of the census tract program

is to provide a geographic unit that has

stable boundaries between decennial

censuses. Other goals include the

identification of geographic areas that

represent meaningful geographic

divisions of a county based on economic

or social interaction, significant

topographic differences within a county,

or a certain degree of demographic

homogeneity at the time of original

delineation. The Census Bureau uses

census tracts to tabulate and

disseminate a wide variety of data. For

Census 2000, census tracts will be

established across the entire area of the

United States, Puerto Rico, and the

Island Areas (American Samoa, Guam,

the Northern Mariana Islands, and the

Virgin Islands of the United States).

Census tracts first appeared in the

1910 census when local officials in eight

of the larger cities delineated these

areas. In the 1910, 1920, and 1930

censuses, the Census Bureau published

census tract data as special tabulations;

in 1940, the Census Bureau began

including census tract data in its

standard publications. The number of

data subjects and the amount of data, as

well as the number of counties

containing census tracts, increased in

every census through 1990. For the 1990

census, the Census Bureau inaugurated

complete nationwide coverage and

statistics for census tracts or statistically

equivalent entities known as block

numbering areas (BNAs.) For Census

2000, the Census Bureau will combine

the similar programs into a single

census tract program.

To determine the boundaries and

identification numbers of census tracts,

the Census Bureau offers a program to

local participants, such as locally

identified agencies and American

Indian tribal officials, whereby they can

review and update the boundaries of the

census tracts and BNAs delineated for

the 1990 census and suggest revisions

according to the criteria developed and

promulgated by the Census Bureau. The

Census Bureau will then review the

resulting Census 2000 census tract plans

for conformance to these criteria.

As the first step in this process, the

Census Bureau requests comments on

its proposed criteria for the delineation

of census tracts in conjunction with

Census 2000. These criteria will apply

to the 50 states, the District of Columbia,

American Indian and Alaska Native

areas, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas.

The Census Bureau may modify and, if

necessary, reject proposals for census

tracts that do not meet the criteria

established following this notice.

Besides the proposed criteria, this

notice includes a description of the

changes from the criteria used for the

1990 census and a list of definitions of

key terms used in the criteria.

DATE: Any suggestions or

recommendations concerning the

proposed criteria should be submitted

in writing by February 28, 1997.

ADDRESS: Director, Bureau of the

Census, Washington, DC 20233–0001.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr.

Joel Morrison, Chief, Geography

Division, Bureau of the Census,

Washington, DC 20233–7400, telephone

(301) 457–1132, or e-mail to

‘‘joel.morrison@census.gov.’’

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The

census tract delineation criteria have

evolved over the past nine decades in

response to decennial census practices

and the preferences of local participants

and data users. After each decennial

census, the Census Bureau, in

consultation with past participants and

data users, reviews and revises these

criteria. Then, before the next decennial

census, the Census Bureau offers state,

tribal, and local officials an opportunity

to correct, update, and otherwise

improve the universe of census tracts.

In July and August 1995, the Census

Bureau issued invitations to local

groups and agencies to participate in the

delineation of statistical geographic

areas for Census 2000. These groups and

agencies included regional planning

agencies, councils of governments,

county planning agencies, officials of

Federally recognized American Indian

tribes, and officials of the 12 nonprofit

Alaska Native Regional Corporations.

In 1997, the Census Bureau will

provide materials and detailed

guidelines to program participants for

the review and delineation of census

tracts for Census 2000.

A. Criteria for Delineating Census

Tracts for Census 2000

The Census Bureau proposes the

following criteria for use in delineating

Census 2000 census tracts.

1. General Characteristics

• A census tract must meet the

population and boundary feature

criteria and comprise a reasonably

compact, continuous land area

internally accessible to all points by

road; the only exceptions are:

(a) where the tract is defined to

include a specific legal or land-use area

that itself is discontinuous, in which

case discontinuity is allowed.

(b) where a discontinuous area or

inaccessible area would not meet

population size requirements for a

separate census tract, in which case the

discontinuous or inaccessible area must

be combined within an adjacent or

proximate census tract.

(c) where the topography or

geographic patterns of settlement are not

compact, but are irregularly shaped, in

which case a census tract shape can

depart from the compactness

requirement.

• A county boundary always must be

a census tract boundary. This criterion

takes precedence over all other criteria

or requirements except for the

population threshold criteria for census

tracts on American Indian reservations

(AIRs) in multiple counties.

• Census tracts must cover the entire

land and inland water area of each

county. In coastal waters, territorial

seas, and the Great Lakes, the Census

Bureau recommends creating in each

county a single census tract covering

such water bodies to provide for

complete census tract coverage.

2. Identification

• A census tract has a basic census

tract number composed of no more than

four digits and may have a two-digit

decimal suffix.

• Census tract numbers must be

unique within each county.

• The range of acceptable basic

census tract numbers for Census 2000 is

1 to 9989; census tracts delineated

specifically to complete coverage in

territorial seas and the Great Lakes will

use the number 0000 in each county.

• Census tracts delineated within or

to encompass an AIR that crosses

county or state and county boundaries,

where the intent is for the census tract

to ignore the county or state boundary

for tabulation in an American Indian

geographic hierarchy, will use numbers

9400 to 9499.

• The range of acceptable census tract

suffixes is .01 to .98. The Census Bureau

reserves the .99 suffix to identify

civilian and military ships as ‘‘crews-ofvessels’’ census tracts.

3. Boundary Features

The Census Bureau recommends that

most census tract boundaries follow

visible and identifiable features. This

makes the location of census tract

boundaries less ambiguous. The Census
4248 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 19 / Wednesday, January 29, 1997 / Notices

Bureau also permits the use of legal

boundaries in some states and situations

to allow for census tract-togovernmental unit relationships where

the governmental boundaries tend to

remain unchanged between censuses.

The following features are acceptable as

census tract boundaries for Census

2000:

• All state and county boundaries

(always required).

• Visible, perennial natural and

cultural features, such as roads, rivers,

canals, railroads, above-ground hightension power lines, and so forth.

• All minor civil division (MCD)

boundaries (generally towns or

townships) in Connecticut, Indiana,

Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,

New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania,

Rhode Island, and Vermont.

• Those MCD boundaries not

coincident with the boundaries of

incorporated places that themselves are

MCDs (being either coextensive with an

MCD or independent of MCDs) in

Illinois (townships only, not election

precincts), Iowa, Kansas, Michigan,

Minnesota, Missouri (governmental

townships only), Nebraska (townships

only, not election precincts), North

Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and

Wisconsin.

• Barrio, barrio-pueblo, and subbarrio

boundaries in Puerto Rico, census

subdistrict boundaries in the Virgin

Islands of the United States, MCDcounty and island boundaries in

American Samoa, and municipal district

boundaries in the Northern Mariana

Islands.

• All incorporated place boundaries

in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts,

New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York,

Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and

Vermont.

• Conjoint incorporated place

boundaries in other states; that is, the

boundary separating two different

incorporated places.

• AIR boundaries.

• American Indian trust land, Alaska

Native village statistical area, and

Alaska Native Regional Corporation

boundaries, at the discretion of the

Census Bureau, insofar as such

boundaries are unambiguous for

allocating living quarters as part of

Census 2000 activities.

When the features listed above are not

available for selection, the Census

Bureau may, at its discretion, approve

other nonstandard visible features, such

as ridge lines, pipelines, intermittent

streams, fence lines, and so forth. The

Census Bureau also may accept, on a

case-by-case basis, the boundaries of

selected nonstandard and potentially

nonvisible features such as the

boundaries of National Parks and

National Forests, cemeteries, or other

special land-use properties, the straightline extensions of visible features, and

other lines of sight.

4. Population Thresholds

The Census Bureau proposes the

following population criteria for census

tracts (see Table 1):

• In the United States, Puerto Rico,

and the Virgin Islands of the United

States: 1,500 to 8,000 inhabitants, with

an optimum of 4,000 inhabitants.

• In American Samoa, Guam, and the

Northern Mariana Islands: 1,500 to

8,000 inhabitants, with an optimum of

2,500 inhabitants.

• On American Indian reservations:

1,000 to 8,000 inhabitants, with an

optimum of 2,500 inhabitants. (The

population criteria for AIRs apply to the

entire reservation, including AIRs in

multiple counties or states).

• In all counties, for census tracts

delineated to enclose an institution, a

military installation, or other ‘‘special

place’’ population: at least 1,000

inhabitants, with no optimum average

or maximum (no change from 1990). (A

special place includes facilities with

resident population, such as

correctional institutions, military

installations, college campuses,

workers’ dormitories, hospitals, nursing

homes, and group homes. A special

place includes the entire facility

including nonresidential areas and staff

housing units, as well as all group

quarters population.)

TABLE 1.—POPULATION THRESHOLDS FOR CENSUS 2000 CENSUS TRACTS

Area description

Population thresholds

Optimum Minimum Maximum

United States, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands of the U. S. ....................................................................... 4,000 1,500 8,000

American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands ........................................................................... 2,500 1,500 8,000

American Indian reservation ................................................................................................................ 2,500 1,000 8,000

Special place census tract ................................................................................................................... none 1,000 none

5. Comparability and Implementation

As in previous censuses, the Census

Bureau generally will not accept newly

proposed census tracts that do not meet

the required minimum population.

However, with appropriate justification,

the Census Bureau may grant exceptions

on a case-by-case basis. For example, to

facilitate census tract comparability over

time, any 1990 census tract or BNA

(except a ‘‘sliver’’ census tract/BNA—

see 6. Sliver Census Tracts) that is

virtually unchanged (that is, having less

than five percent of the 1990 population

affected by a boundary revision) may be

recognized as a Census 2000 census

tract even if its population falls below

the minimum required population or

above the maximum allowable

population. The Census Bureau,

however, recommends combining low

population census tracts and splitting

large population census tracts to meet

the goal of providing meaningful smallarea data.

6. Sliver Census Tracts

The Census Bureau will not retain, or

continue to recognize for Census 2000,

any 1990 ‘‘sliver’’ census tracts or

BNAs. After the Census Bureau inserted

the 1990 census tracts into the TIGER

data base, sliver census tracts resulted

from:

•County boundary changes or

corrections.

• Special land-use boundary changes

or corrections (military reservations,

National Parks, and so forth).

• Local requests to correct errors in the

insertion of 1990 areas into the TIGER

data base.

Sliver census tracts usually cover a

very small area, and in most cases

involve little or no population or

housing. The Census Bureau has

adopted new rules for establishing

tabulation geographic areas in Census

2000 by separating the collection areas

from the tabulation areas. This change

will eliminate the need for such sliver

census tracts in Census 2000.

In 1990, the Census Bureau

established rules to assign special

numerical suffixes to identify sliver

census tracts, generally beginning with

.98 and continuing in descending order.

The Census Bureau applied the suffix to

both the original census tract that lost
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 19 / Wednesday, January 29, 1997 / Notices 4249

territory and the newly created sliver

census tract. For Census 2000, we

recommend that local participants

dispense with the sliver suffix for

legitimate census tracts, but will not

require a change if specifically

requested by the local participant for

comparability purposes.

B. Changes to the Criteria for Census

2000

Most provisions of the census tract

criteria remain unchanged from those

used in conjunction with the 1990

census, with the few exceptions

summarized below:

1. The Census Bureau is combining

the census tract and BNA programs to

create a single census tract program. The

major differences between the 1990

census tracts and BNAs were: (1)

representatives of the states or Census

Bureau staff were responsible for the

delineation of BNAs rather than local

census statistical areas committees, and

(2) census tracts were delineated mainly

according to population criteria, while

BNAs were delineated to meet data

collection criteria based on the number

of housing units rather than population.

For Census 2000, the Census Bureau

will contact local officials for the

delineation of census tracts, and there

will not be a housing unit criterion, thus

bringing both areas under a single

standard.

2. The Census Bureau is increasing

the number of governmental units that

have boundaries acceptable to use as

census tract boundaries. The added

areas are: all MCDs in Indiana and

selected MCDs in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas,

Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,

Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota,

and Wisconsin; the MCD-county and

island areas of American Samoa; and

villages in New York.

3. The Census Bureau now allows

officials of Federally recognized AIRs

meeting the 1,000 minimum population

threshold to delineate census tracts

without regard to state or county

boundaries. Although the Census

Bureau will tabulate data for each statecounty-census tract part, it also plans to

provide summed data for all

components of each census tract bearing

the same numeric identifier within a

Federally recognized AIR.

4. The Census Bureau will use census

tracts only as tabulation areas, thus

allowing late corrections to census tract

boundaries as a result of legal county

boundary changes or to correct errors

without having to create unique sliver

census tracts for such areas.

Definitions of Key Terms

Alaska Native Regional Corporation

(ANRC)—A corporate entity established

under the Alaska Native Claims

Settlement Act of 1972, Public Law 92–

203, as amended by Public Law 92–204,

to conduct both the business and

nonprofit affairs of Alaska Natives.

Twelve ANRCs cover the entire State of

Alaska except for the Annette Islands

Reserve.

Alaska Native Village statistical area

(ANVSA)—A statistical entity

containing the densely settled extent of

an Alaska Native village that constitutes

an association, band, clan, community,

group, tribe, or village recognized

pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims

Settlement Act of 1972, Public Law 92–

203, as amended by Public Law 92–204.

American Indian reservation (AIR)—

A Federally recognized American

Indian entity with boundaries

established by treaty, statute, and/or

executive or court order and over which

American Indians have governmental

jurisdiction. Along with reservation,

designations such as colonies,

communities, pueblos, rancherias, and

reserves apply to AIRs.

Block numbering area (BNA)—A

small-area, statistical geographic

division of a county or statistically

equivalent area delineated in 1990

instead of and generally geographically

equivalent to census tracts. For Census

2000, the Census Bureau is merging the

BNA program into the census tract

program.

Coastal water—Water bodies between

territorial seas and inland water, the

encompassing headlands being more

than one mile apart and less than 24

miles apart.

Conjoint—A description of a

boundary shared by two adjacent

geographic entities.

Continuous—A description of areas

sharing common boundaries, such that

the areas, when combined, form a single

piece of territory. Discontinuous areas

form disjoint pieces.

Crews-of-vessels census tract—A

census tract created at the time of

enumeration for allocating the

shipboard population of merchant and

military ships and identified with a

special numeric suffix equal to .99.

Great Lakes’ waters—Water area

beyond one mile wide headland

embayments located in any of the five

Great Lakes: Erie, Huron, Michigan,

Ontario, or Superior.

Incorporated place—A type of

governmental unit, sanctioned by state

law as a city, town (except in New

England, New York, and Wisconsin),

village, or borough (except in Alaska

and New York), having legally

prescribed limits, powers, and

functions.

Inland water—Water bodies entirely

surrounded by land or at the point

where their opening to coastal waters,

territorial seas, or the Great Lakes is less

than one mile across.

Minor civil division (MCD)—The

primary governmental or administrative

division of a county in 28 states, Puerto

Rico and the Island Areas having legal

boundaries, names, and descriptions.

MCDs represent many different types of

legal entities with a wide variety of

characteristics, powers, and functions

depending on the state and type of

MCD. In some states, some or all of the

incorporated places also constitute

MCDs.

Nonvisible feature—A map feature

that is not visible on the ground such as

a city or county boundary through

space, a property line, a short line-ofsight extension of a road, or a point-topoint line of sight.

Special place—A specific location

requiring special enumeration because

the location includes people not in

households or the area includes special

land use. Special places include

facilities with resident populations,

such as correctional institutions,

military installations, college campuses,

workers’ dormitories, hospitals, nursing

homes, group homes, and land-use areas

such as National Parks. A special place

includes the entire facility, including

nonresidential areas and staff housing

units, as well as all group quarters

population.

Territorial seas—Water bodies not

included under the rules for inland

water, coastal water, or Great Lakes’

waters, see above.

Visible feature—A map feature that

one can see on the ground such as a

road, railroad track, above-ground

transmission line, stream, shoreline,

fence, sharply defined mountain ridge,

or cliff. A nonstandard visible feature is

a feature that may not be clearly defined

on the ground (such as a ridge), may be

seasonal (such as an intermittent

stream), or may be relatively

impermanent (such as a fence). The

Census Bureau generally requests

verification that nonstandard features

pose no problem in their location during

field work.

Dated: December 18, 1996.

Martha Farnsworth Riche,

Director, Bureau of the Census.

[FR Doc. 97–2185 Filed 1–28–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–07–P