[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4198 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4198

     To provide standards for determining whether the substantial 
  restoration of the natural quiet and experience of the Grand Canyon 
  National Park has been achieved and to clarify regulatory authority 
     with respect to commercial air tours operating over the Park.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 16, 2012

    Mr. Gosar (for himself, Ms. Berkley, Mr. Franks of Arizona, Mr. 
Schweikert, Mr. Quayle, Mr. Heck, Mr. Amodei, and Mr. Flake) introduced 
  the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural 
                               Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To provide standards for determining whether the substantial 
  restoration of the natural quiet and experience of the Grand Canyon 
  National Park has been achieved and to clarify regulatory authority 
     with respect to commercial air tours operating over the Park.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Grand Canyon Tourism Jobs Protection 
Act of 2012''.

SEC. 2. OVERFLIGHTS IN GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK.

    (a) Determinations With Respect to Substantial Restoration of 
Natural Quiet and Experience.--
            (1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of 
        law, for purposes of section 3(b)(1) of Public Law 100-91 (16 
        U.S.C. 1a-1 note), the substantial restoration of the natural 
        quiet and experience of the Grand Canyon National Park (in this 
        subsection referred to as the ``Park'') shall be considered to 
        be achieved in the Park if, for at least 75 percent of each 
        day, 50 percent of the Park is free of sound produced by 
        commercial air tour operations that have an allocation to 
        conduct commercial air tours in the Park as of the date of the 
        enactment of this Act.
            (2) Considerations.--
                    (A) In general.--For purposes of determining 
                whether substantial restoration of the natural quiet 
                and experience of the Park has been achieved in 
                accordance with paragraph (1), the Secretary of the 
                Interior (in this section referred to as the 
                ``Secretary'') shall use--
                            (i) the 2-zone system for the Park in 
                        effect on the date of the enactment of this Act 
                        to assess impacts relating to subsectional 
                        restoration of natural quiet at the Park, 
                        including--
                                    (I) the thresholds for 
                                noticeability and audibility; and
                                    (II) the distribution of land 
                                between the 2 zones; and
                            (ii) noise modeling science that is--
                                    (I) developed for use at the Park, 
                                specifically Integrated Noise Model 
                                Version 6.2;
                                    (II) validated by reasonable 
                                standards for conducting field 
                                observations of model results; and
                                    (III) accepted and validated by the 
                                Federal Interagency Committee on 
                                Aviation Noise.
                    (B) Sound from other sources.--The Secretary shall 
                not consider sound produced by sources other than 
                commercial air tour operations, including sound emitted 
                by other types of aircraft operations or other noise 
                sources, for purposes of--
                            (i) making recommendations, developing a 
                        final plan, or issuing regulations relating to 
                        commercial air tour operations in the Park; or
                            (ii) determining under paragraph (1) 
                        whether substantial restoration of the natural 
                        quiet and experience of the Park has been 
                        achieved.
            (3) Continued monitoring.--The Secretary shall continue 
        monitoring noise from aircraft operating over the Park below 
        17,999 feet MSL to ensure continued compliance with the 
        substantial restoration of natural quiet and experience in the 
        Park.
            (4) Day defined.--For purposes of this subsection, the term 
        ``day'' means the hours between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
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