[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 60 (Thursday, March 27, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16321-16323]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-6293]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[WO-320-1330-PE-24 1A]


Extension of Approved Information Collection, OMB Approval Number 
1004-0103

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has submitted an 
Information Collection Request (ICR) to OMB for review and approval. 
The ICR is scheduled to expire on March 31, 2008. The BLM may not 
conduct or sponsor and a person is not required to respond to a 
collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB 
control number. However, under OMB regulations, the BLM may continue to 
conduct or sponsor this information collection while it is pending at 
OMB. On January 8, 2008, the BLM published a notice in the Federal 
Register (73 FR 1364) requesting comment on this information 
collection. The comment period closed on March 8, 2008. The BLM 
received no comments. You may obtain copies of the collection of 
information and related forms and explanatory material by contacting 
the BLM Information Collection Clearance Officer at the telephone 
number listed in the ADDRESSES section below.

DATES: The OMB is required to respond to this request within 60 days 
but may respond after 30 days. Submit your comments to OMB at the 
address below by April 28, 2008 to receive maximum consideration.

ADDRESSES: Send your comments and suggestions on this ICR to the Desk 
Officer for the Department of the Interior at OMB-OIRA at (202) 395-
6566 (fax) or [email protected] (e-mail). Please provide a copy 
of your comments to Alexandra Ritchie, Information Collection Clearance 
Officer, Bureau of Land Management, at U.S. Department of the Interior, 
Bureau of Land Management, Mail Stop 401LS, 1849 C Street, NW., 
Washington, DC 20240. Additionally, you may contact Alexandra Ritchie 
regarding this ICR at (202) 452-0388 (phone); (202) 653-5287 (fax); or 
[email protected] (e-mail).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For program-related questions, contact 
George Brown on (202) 452-7772 (Commercial or FTS). Persons who use a 
telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal 
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8330, 24 hours a day, 
seven days a week, to contact Mr. Brown via message service. For 
questions regarding this ICR or the information collection process, 
contact Alexandra Ritchie by phone, mail, fax, or e-mail (see 
ADDRESSES).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    OMB Control Number: 1004-0103.
    Title: Mineral Materials Disposal, 43 CFR 3600, 3601, and 3602.
    Bureau Form Number: 3600-9.
    Type of Request: Revision of currently approved collection.
    Affected Public: Private sector.
    Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain a benefit.
    Frequency of Collection: Annually or monthly (contracts and 
reporting requirements vary).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                 Number of       Number of
                  Activity                        annual          annual        Completion time    Annual burden
                                                respondents      responses       per  response         hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Form 3600-9:
    43 CFR 3602.10 Contract for the Sale of              440             440  30 minutes........             220
     Mineral Materials.
                                             -------------------------------------------------------------------
      Form Subtotal.........................             440             440  30 minutes........             220
                                             ===================================================================
Non-form:
    43 CFR 3601.30 Sampling and testing.....              30              30  30 minutes........              15
    43 CFR 3602.10 Request for sale.........             440             440  30 minutes........             220
    43 CFR 3601.40 Mining and reclamation                110             110  24 hours..........           2,640
     plans.
    43 CFR 3601.40 Mining and reclamation                200             200  2 hours...........             400
     plans (simple case).
    43 CFR 3602.14 Performance bond.........             440             440  30 minutes........             220

[[Page 16322]]

 
    43 CFR 3602.21 Payments.................             440             440  12 hours..........           5,280
    43 CFR 3602.28 Records Maintenance......             440             440  6 hours...........           2,640
                                             -------------------------------------------------------------------
      Non-Form Subtotal.....................           2,100           2,100  ..................          11,415
                                             ===================================================================
        Total Form and Non-Form.............           2,540           2,540  ..................          11,635
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Abstract: The Materials Act of 1947, as amended (Act), 30 U.S.C. 
601 and 602, provides for the disposal of mineral materials, such as 
sand, gravel, and petrified wood from public lands by sale or free use. 
The BLM disposes of such materials under the regulations at CFR parts 
3600 and 3620.
    The BLM uses Form 3600-9 to collect information to:
    (1) Determine whether the sale of mineral materials is in the 
public interest;
    (2) Mitigate the environmental impacts of mineral materials 
development;
    (3) Get fair market value for materials sold; and
    (4) Prevent trespass removal of the materials.
    Applicants must submit a request in writing to the BLM to purchase 
mineral materials. Specific information requirements are not stated in 
the regulations, but sale agreements are made on Form 3600-9 approved 
by the BLM.
    Respondents maintain records as part of the customary and usual 
business and private practices, and purchases do not involve 
substantial additional information collection for most respondents. 
Cost estimates for information collection can vary widely because the 
nature of the applications varies considerably in size, location, and 
associated environmental conflicts; all of which can substantially 
affect the complexity and cost of the processing and the amount of 
information needed. Typically, larger purchases involve more records 
over a longer period of time. Respondents are not required to purchase 
additional computer hardware or software to comply with these 
information collection requirements. There are no capital and start-up 
costs involved with this information collection.
    While the BLM does not require the respondents to purchase special 
equipment to maintain these records and these respondents maintain 
records for tax purposes and production verification as part of their 
usual business, the BLM does ask respondents to query or search their 
databases or other records maintenance systems to provide a summary 
record so that the BLM can process the requests for an exclusive 
mineral materials sales contract. We therefore treat this combined 
records maintenance and reporting effort as part of the respondents' 
annual burden hours and costs in Item 12 of this document. For the 
purposes of this information collection request, ``records 
maintenance'' is considered one of the ``non-form information 
requirements.''
    There is a filing fee associated with this information collection 
for independent sales that are not in a community pit or common use 
area. Such sales require a case-by-case analysis by the BLM of each 
application because each is unique. Sales vary widely depending on the 
magnitude and nature of the application (can range in quantity from 
tens to millions of tons of materials), the complexity of the mining 
plan proposed, the duration proposed (can range from days to years), 
the location of the proposed removal area, the associated environmental 
effects at that location, and the BLM's related processing costs for 
that application, including the travel time to the site.
    The information collection considers a general cost range for 
respondents for 43 CFR 3601.40, including no cost (where respondent 
uses a BLM plan at a community pit), mid-range costs (respondent either 
prepares a simple plan for small sale at a new site, designs a plan for 
multiple sales at a new site, or makes adjustments to a BLM plan for a 
sale at a community pit), and upper-level costs (to establish a new 
site, typically for a larger sale, requiring original mining and 
reclamation plan design).
    The BLM collected a total of $66,120 in fees associated with 
processing information requirements connected with this collection 
(exclusive sales contracts) in FY 2007. Although we cannot determine 
the filing fee per response in advance, for purposes of this 
information collection we have determined that the average annual 
filing fee per contract is $150.27 or about $150 ($66,120 divided by 
440 exclusive sales contracts). We are therefore assigning this non-
burden hour cost to the sales contract Form 3600-9 Information 
Collection (IC) in the ROCIS database.
    We can attribute our change in non-burden hour costs to respondents 
from the previous collection to new BLM regulations (program change) 
that took effect in November 2005 authorizing the BLM to charge fees to 
recover our costs of processing some sales contracts. Those regulatory 
changes are contained in Minerals Management: Adjustment of Cost 
Recovery Fees Final Rule (43 CFR parts 3000, 3100, 3150, 3200, 350, 
3580, 3600, 3730, 3810, and 3830). The BLM collected a total of $66,120 
in cost recovery fees associated with this information collection in FY 
2007. In order to estimate the annual non-burden hour cost to 
respondents for this collection, the BLM is assuming that it will 
collect on average $66,120 in cost-recovery fees each year associated 
with this collection.
    Comments: We again specifically request your comments on the 
following:
    (1) Whether the collection of information is necessary for the 
proper functioning of the BLM, including whether the information will 
have practical utility;
    (2) The accuracy of the BLM's estimate of the burden of collecting 
the information, including the validity of the methodology and 
assumptions used;
    (3) The quality, utility and clarity of the information we collect; 
and
    (4) How to minimize the burden of collecting the information on 
those who are to respond, including the use of appropriate automated 
electronic, mechanical, or other forms of information technology.
    Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of 
public record. Before including your address, phone number, e-mail 
address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you 
should be aware that your entire comment, including your personal 
identifying information, may be made publicly available at any time. 
While you can ask OMB in your comment to withhold your personal 
identifying

[[Page 16323]]

information from public review, we cannot guarantee that it will be 
done.

    Dated: March 24, 2008.
Alexandra Ritchie,
Bureau of Land Management, Information Collection Clearance Officer.
 [FR Doc. E8-6293 Filed 3-26-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-84-P