[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 14 (Thursday, January 22, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Page 3174]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-1282]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Availability of Draft Environmental Impact Statement 
for the Lackawanna Valley National Heritage Area Management Plan

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Availability of draft environmental impact statement.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental 
Policy Act of 1969, the National Park Service (NPS) announces the 
availability of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for 
Lackawanna Valley National Heritage Area Management Plan. The 
Lackawanna Valley National Heritage Area Act of 2000 (Act) requires the 
Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority, with guidance from the NPS, to 
prepare a Management Plan for the Lackawanna Heritage Valley. The 
Management Plan is expected to: (A) Take into consideration State, 
county, and local plans; (B) involve residents, public agencies, and 
private organizations working in the Heritage Area; (C) include actions 
to be undertaken by units of government and private organizations to 
protect the resources of the Heritage Area and specify the existing and 
potential sources of funding available to protect, manage, and develop 
the Heritage Area; (D) develop an inventory of the resources contained 
in the Heritage Area, including a list of any property in the Heritage 
Area that is related to the purposes of the Heritage Area and that 
should be preserved, restored, managed, developed, or maintained 
because of its historical, cultural, natural, recreational, or scenic 
significance; (E) recommend policies for resource management that 
considers and details application of appropriate land and water 
management techniques, including the development of intergovernmental 
cooperative agreements to protect the historical, cultural, natural, 
and recreational resources of the Heritage Area in a manner that is 
consistent with the support of appropriate and compatible economic 
viability; (F) establish a program for implementation of the management 
plan by the management entity, that includes: (i) Plans for restoration 
and construction, and (ii) specific commitments of the partners for the 
first 5 years of operation; (G) perform an analysis of ways in which 
local, State, and Federal programs may best be coordinated to protect 
the heritage resources; and (H) develop an interpretation plan for the 
Heritage Area.
    The study area, designated as the Lackawanna Valley National 
Heritage Area, includes all or parts of the counties of: Lackawanna, 
Luzerne, Wayne, and Susquehanna County, in northeastern Pennsylvania as 
associated with the Lackawanna River corridor.
    The NPS maintains one park site within the region: Steamtown 
National Historic Site in Scranton. Otherwise the majority of land is 
non-federal and the NPS assumes a management role only within its park 
units. Instead, conservation, interpretation and other activities are 
managed by partnerships among Federal, State, and local governments and 
private nonprofit organizations. The Lackawanna Heritage Valley 
Authority manages the national heritage area. The NPS has been 
authorized by Congress to provide technical and financial assistance 
for a limited period. The Act prohibits the Secretary of the Interior 
from providing any grant or other assistance pursuant to the Act after 
September 30, 2012.

DATES: The DEIS will remain on Public Review for sixty days from the 
publication of the notice in the Federal Register by the Environmental 
Protection Agency.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Peter Samuel, Project Leader, 
Philadelphia Support Office, National Park Service, 200 Chestnut 
Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106, [email protected], 215-597-1848.
    If you correspond using the internet, please include your name and 
return 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. 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: January 14, 2004.
Bernard C. Fagan,
Deputy Chief, NPS Office of Policy and Regulations.
[FR Doc. 04-1282 Filed 1-21-04; 8:45 am]
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