53686 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 174 / Friday, September 9, 2005 / Notices 

businesses, and from individuals 

identifying themselves as 

representatives or officials of 

organizations or businesses available for 

public inspection in their entirety. 

The responsible official is Ernest 

Quintana, Regional Director, Midwest 

Region, National Park Service. 

Dated: July 28, 2005. 

Ernest Quintana, 

Regional Director, Midwest Region. 

[FR Doc. 05–17854 Filed 9–8–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4312–94–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

National Park Service 

Fire Management Plan, Final 

Environmental Impact Statement, 

Saguaro National Park, AZ 

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of availability of the 

Final Environmental Impact Statement 

for the Fire Management Plan, Saguaro 

National Park. 

SUMMARY: Pursuant to National 

Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 42 

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

Service announces the availability of a 

Final Environmental Impact Statement 

for the Fire Management Plan, Saguaro 

National Park, Arizona. 

DATES: The National Park Service will 

execute a Record of Decision (ROD) no 

sooner than 30 days following 

publication by the Environmental 

Protection Agency of the Notice of 

Availability of the Final Environmental 

Impact Statement. 

ADDRESSES: Information will be 

available for public inspection in the 

office of the Superintendent, Sarah 

Craighead, Saguaro National Park, 

Headquarters and Rincon Mountain 

District, 3693 South Old Spanish Trail, 

Tucson, AZ 85730–5601, phone 520–

733–5101; and at the following 

locations: 

Internet: http://www.nps.gov/sagu/ 

pphtml/documents.html. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Kevin Parrish, Fuels Management 

Specialist, Saguaro National Park, 

Headquarters and Rincon Mountain 

District, 3693 South Old Spanish Trail, 

Tucson, AZ 85730–5601, phone 520–

733–5132, or Kevin_Parrish@nps.gov. 

Dated: August 3, 2005. 

Roger Maxwell, 

Acting Director, Intermountain Region, 

National Park Service. 

[FR Doc. 05–17851 Filed 9–8–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4312–52–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

National Park Service 

Utah Museum of Natural History, 

Environmental Impact Statement, 

University of Utah and National Park 

Service and as Joint Lead Agencies, 

Salt Lake County, UT 

AGENCY: The University of Utah and 

National Park Service, Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an 

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) 

for the construction and operation of a 

proposed new Utah Museum of Natural 

History at the University of Utah. 

SUMMARY: Pursuant to the National 

Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 42 

U.S.C. 4332 (C) and (D) (NEPA), the 

University of Utah and the National 

Park Service as Joint Lead Agencies, are 

preparing an Environmental Impact 

Statement (EIS) on the construction and 

operation of a proposed new Utah 

Museum of Natural History museum 

facility at the University of Utah, Salt 

Lake County, Utah. 

The NEPA process is being followed 

because federal funds, as grants through 

the National Park Service, are 

contributing to the design and 

construction costs of the new museum 

facility. The EIS will identify potential 

environmental effects of construction 

and operation of the proposed 169,000 

square foot museum building, parking, 

and related appurtenances and 

mitigation measures to minimize 

adverse environmental impacts on the 

17-acre site provided to the Museum by 

the University of Utah. This site is near 

the University of Utah’s Research Park, 

south of Red Butte Gardens and 

Arboretum in Salt Lake County, Utah. 

The Utah Public Lands Artifact 

Preservation Act, Pub. L. 107–329, 

enacted in 2002, authorizes the 

Secretary of the Interior to make a grant 

to the University of Utah to pay the 

Federal share of the costs of 

construction of a new facility including 

design, planning, furnishing, and 

equipping of the Museum. Seventy-five 

percent of the Museum’s collection is 

material recovered from federally 

managed public lands including lands 

administered by the National Park 

Service. In January 2005, the Museum 

initiated an Environmental Assessment 

on the proposed project. After 

completion of public scoping and the 

identification of issues, the agencies 

decided to prepare an EIS. 

The EIS will analyze the proposed 

action, a no action alternative, 

alternative approaches to site and 

facilities design and placement, and 

other reasonable alternatives, if any, 

identified during the NEPA process. The 

EIS will also consider mitigation 

measures to minimize potential adverse 

environmental effects. Based on current 

information it is not expected that the 

EIS alternatives will include alternative 

sites for the museum facility, for several 

reasons. (1) The University of Utah and 

the Museum concluded a site selection 

process in 1995, and in 1997 the 

University of Utah Board of Trustees 

reserved the Research Park site for use 

by the Museum. Since that time 

considerable resources have been 

devoted to site planning, and substantial 

private, state and federal financial 

commitments have been received for 

design, construction and operation of a 

museum on the designated site. It would 

not be practical or economically feasible 

for the Museum to abandon this site for 

an alternative location. (2) Congress, in 

enacting the 2002 Utah Public Lands 

Artifact Preservation Act and in making 

subsequent appropriations, 

contemplated that the new museum 

would be located at the 17-acre 

Research Park site and it authorized and 

has since appropriated funding for a 

facility at that site. (3) If the new 

museum were built at an alternative 

location, the Research Park site would 

nonetheless still be developed, meaning 

that there would not likely be a decrease 

in overall impacts. 

Issues that were identified by the 

public during scoping for the EA and 

that will be addressed in the EIS 

include: vegetation and wildlife; 

recreation and trail use; open space, 

visual quality and aesthetics; traffic, 

transportation and parking; 

socioeconomics/cultural; air quality; 

soils, geological and seismic concerns; 

surface and groundwater quality and 

management; consideration of 

alternative sites; hazardous materials; 

and archaeological, cultural, historic 

and paleontological resources. Scoping 

for the EA was conducted February 15 

through March 16, 2005 with a scoping 

meeting on March 8. The meeting was 

widely publicized and was attended by 

over 90 members of the public. 

Approximately 350 comments were 

received by letter or email. A scoping 

brochure has been prepared that details 

the issues identified to date. Copies of 

the brochure may be obtained from the 

project’s NEPA contractor, Bear West, 

145 South 400 East, Salt Lake City, Utah 

84111, phone (801) 355–8816. The 

scoping brochure along with a request 

for any additional scoping comments is 

being mailed to the project mailing list 

including those who attended the initial 

scoping meeting or submitted written