[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 178 (Monday, September 15, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Page 54008]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-23347]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Intent To Conduct a Special Resource Study, 
Environmental Impact Statement, for the Great Falls Historic District, 
Paterson, New Jersey, and To Hold a Public Scoping Meeting

AGENCY: National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

ACTION: Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement 
for the Special Resource Study for the Great Falls Historic District in 
Paterson, New Jersey and to hold a public scoping meeting.

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SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act 
of 1969, the National Park Service is preparing an Environmental Impact 
Statement (EIS) for the Special Resource Study (SRS) for the Great 
Falls Historic District in Paterson, New Jersey. This SRS was 
authorized in Pub. L. 107-59, including its mandate for conformance 
with Sec. 8(c) of Pub. L. 91-383. The purpose of an SRS is to determine 
the degree and kind of federal actions that may be desirable for the 
management and protection of an area considered to have potential for 
addition to the National Park System. This is an SRS of the existing 
Great Falls Historic District, which preserves the history of the 
beginnings of manufacturing and labor in the United States. All of the 
elements of the site are located within the City of Paterson, County of 
Passaic in New Jersey, adjacent to the Passaic River. The study area 
will include the Great Falls/SUM National Historic Landmark District in 
the City of Paterson. Additional sites or locations in the City of 
Paterson area will be considered as may be necessary during the study 
process.
    The place and time of a public scoping meeting in the City of 
Paterson will be announced by the National Park Service (NPS) and 
noticed in local newspapers serving the area. Notice of the meeting 
will also be posted on the project Web site: http://www.nps.gov/nero/greatfalls. The NPS does not presently own land or have a direct 
management role relating to any resources in the City of Paterson. 
Instead, conservation, interpretation and other activities are managed 
chiefly by the City of Paterson, but may include partnerships among 
federal, state, and local governments and private nonprofit 
organizations.
    The SRS/EIS will address a range of alternatives including any 
potential roles for the NPS in preservation and interpretation of the 
resources of the study area. Alternatives to be considered include: no 
action, the potential for congressional designation of all or part of 
the study area as a unit of the National Park system, and any other 
appropriate alternative that may arise during the study process.
    In summary, the SRS will present findings on five topics:
    [sbull] National significance of resources;
    [sbull] Determination of the suitability of the sites for inclusion 
within the National Park System in comparison to other protected sites 
with similar resources or themes;
    [sbull] Determination of feasibility for the NPS to own, manage or 
participate in conservation and interpretation in the study area;
    [sbull] Determination of the need for direct NPS management of the 
sites,
    [sbull] Identification of alternatives including, but not limited 
to, a no action alternative.
    The EIS will assess the impacts of the alternatives presented in 
the SRS. The public scoping meeting will include a discussion of the 
SRS and the EIS process including ways that the public can be involved 
in providing and receiving information, and reviewing and commenting 
upon the draft study and associated draft EIS. The purpose of the 
meeting is to solicit public input prior to formally undertaking the 
study.
    Everyone interested in this study and the future protection and 
management of this area is encouraged to attend the public scoping 
meeting or to contact Patricia Iolavera, National Park Service 
Community Planner/Project Leader, by letter, e-mail or telephone for 
further information. A summary of the meeting comments will be posted 
on the project Web site and distributed in hard copy to anyone 
requesting it.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Patricia Iolavera, AICP: Community 
Planner/Project Leader, National Park Service, Northeast Region, 200 
Chestnut Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19106-2878, e-mail 
address: [email protected], Telephone: 215-597-2284.
    If you correspond using the Internet, please include your name and 
home address in your e-mail message. Our practice is to make comments, 
including names and home addresses of respondents, available for public 
review. 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: August 11, 2003.
Pat Phelan,
Associate Regional Director, Northeast Region, National Park Service.
[FR Doc. 03-23347 Filed 9-12-03; 8:45 am]
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