[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 217 (Monday, November 10, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66763-66765]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-26668]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration

DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR

National Park Service

[Docket No. FAA-2014-0782]


Grand Canyon National Park Quiet Aircraft Technology Incentive: 
Seasonal Relief From Allocations in the Dragon and Zuni Point Corridors

    Authority: Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, 
Sec. 35001, Public Law 112-141, 126 Stat. 843; National Parks Air 
Tour Management Act, Sec. 804, Public Law 106-181, 114 Stat. 192.

AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration, Transportation; National Park 
Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice and request for public comment.

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SUMMARY: The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) 
in section 35001(b)(2) directs the Administrator of the Federal 
Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Secretary of the Interior to 
provide quiet aircraft technology incentives for commercial air tour 
operators at Grand Canyon National Park. The FAA and the National Park 
Service (NPS) propose to implement this directive by giving effect to 
section 804(c) of the National Parks Air Tour Management Act (NPATMA) 
to provide seasonal relief from allocations in the Dragon and Zuni 
Point corridors for commercial air tour operators that convert or have 
converted to quiet aircraft technology. The FAA and the NPS will ensure 
that seasonal relief from allocations complies with statutory 
conditions that the cumulative impact of such operations does not 
increase noise at the Grand Canyon and that this incentive does not 
diminish the statutory mandate to achieve the substantial restoration 
of natural quiet. This incentive is proposed to be made available in 
the Dragon and Zuni Point corridors during the first quarter (January-
March) beginning in 2015, may be extended to include part or all of the 
fourth quarter beginning in 2016, and will remain in effect unless it 
violates the statutory conditions or until a longer term approach for 
managing air tour noise is in place.

DATES: Send comments on or before December 10, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Send comments identified by docket number FAA-2014-0782 
using any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the online instructions for sending your 
comments electronically.
     Mail: Send comments to Docket Operations, M-30; U.S. 
Department of Transportation (DOT), 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Room 
W12-140, West Building Ground Floor, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
     Hand Delivery or Courier: Take comments to Docket 
Operations in Room W12-140 of the West Building Ground Floor at 1200 
New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., 
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
     Fax: Fax comments to Docket Operations at 202-493-2251.
    Privacy: All comments received will be posted, without change, to 
http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information the 
commenter provides. Using the search function of the docket Web site, 
anyone can find and read the electronic form of all comments received 
into any docket, including the name of the individual sending the 
comment (or signing the

[[Page 66764]]

comment for an association, business, labor union, etc.). DOT's 
complete Privacy Act Statement can be found in the Federal Register 
published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-19478), as well as at http://DocketsInfo.dot.gov.
    Docket: Background documents or comments received may be read at 
http://www.regulations.gov at any time. Follow the online instructions 
for accessing the docket or go to the Docket Operations in Room W12-140 
of the West Building Ground Floor at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., 
Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
except Federal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Keith Lusk, Program Manager, Federal Aviation Administration, P.O. Box 
92007, Los Angeles, California 90009-2007; telephone (310) 725-3808; 
email [email protected]
Robin Martin, Chief, Office of Planning and Compliance, Grand Canyon 
National Park, P.O. Box 129, Grand Canyon, Arizona 86023-0129; 
telephone (928) 638-7684; email [email protected]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Authority

    1. The National Park Overflights Act of 1987, Public Law 100-91, 
directed the Secretary of the Interior and the Administrator of the FAA 
to take actions to provide for the substantial restoration of the 
natural quiet and experience of Grand Canyon National Park and the 
protection of public health and safety from adverse effects associated 
with aircraft overflight. As part of these actions, operational limits 
for commercial air tour operations at Grand Canyon National Park (the 
park) were imposed by FAA regulations at 14 CFR part 93 issued on April 
4, 2000. With some exceptions not relevant to this notice, these 
regulations establish an allocation scheme for the park, require 
commercial air tour operators to use one allocation for each flight 
that is a commercial air tour, and prohibit operators from conducting 
more commercial air tours in any calendar year than the number of 
allocations specified on the certificate holder's operations 
specifications issued by the FAA. 14 CFR 93.319. These regulations also 
define and describe quiet aircraft technology (QT). 14 CFR 93.303 and 
appendix A to subpart U of part 93.
    2. The National Parks Air Tour Management Act (NPATMA), Public Law 
106-181, was signed into law on April 5, 2000. Under section 804(c), 
commercial air tour operations by any fixed-wing or helicopter aircraft 
that employs QT and that replaces an existing aircraft are not subject 
to the operational flight allocations that apply to other commercial 
air tour operations at the park, provided that the cumulative impact of 
such operations does not increase noise at the Grand Canyon. Section 
804(d) provides that a commercial air tour operation by an aircraft in 
a commercial air tour operator's fleet on the date of enactment of 
NPATMA that meets QT requirements or is subsequently modified to meet 
QT requirements may be used for commercial air tour operations under 
the same terms and conditions as section 804(c) without regard to 
whether it replaces an existing aircraft. In addition, NPATMA expressly 
states that it does not relieve or diminish the statutory mandate to 
achieve substantial restoration of natural quiet and experience at the 
park.
    3. Section 35001 of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st 
Century Act (MAP-21), Public Law 112-141, July 6, 2012, directs the 
Secretary of the Interior and the Administrator of the Federal Aviation 
Administration to provide incentives for commercial air tour operators 
that convert to QT, determined in accordance with the regulations then 
in effect. MAP-21 gives as an example of an incentive increasing the 
flight allocations for operators of QT on a net basis consistent with 
section 804(c) of NPATMA, provided that the cumulative impact of such 
operations does not increase noise at the Grand Canyon.

II. Current QT Incentives

    This proposed incentive is one of several that the FAA and the NPS 
are providing for operators that convert or have converted to QT to 
encourage greater use of QT. The NPS, in consultation with the FAA, 
reduced the fees applicable to commercial air tour operations at the 
Grand Canyon by 20 percent (from $25 to $20 per flight) for an air tour 
using QT. This fee reduction went into effect on January 1, 2014.
    On February 3, 2014, the FAA, in consultation with the NPS, 
announced its intention to distribute FAA-held allocations to 
commercial tour operators in proportion to the number of QT operations 
flown in the first six months of 2014. 79 FR 6267. These allocations 
are to be used for QT flights during the 2014 air tour season and 
beyond.

III. Seasonal Relief From Allocations for QT in the Dragon and Zuni 
Point Corridors

    The FAA and the NPS propose to provide an additional QT incentive 
in the Dragon and Zuni Point corridors where QT can have the greatest 
positive effect on park resources and where the need for relief from 
allocations has been demonstrated. Under this proposed incentive, 
commercial air tour operators flying QT aircraft in the Dragon and Zuni 
Point corridors will initially be relieved from having such operations 
count against their annual allocations in the first quarter (January 1-
March 31) of 2015. During this first quarter, QT flights will not use 
an allocation, while non-QT flights must still use an allocation. All 
commercial air tour flights, QT and non-QT, must use an allocation for 
the remainder of the year (April 1-December 31). However, operators 
will continue to benefit from the seasonal relief since they may use 
allocations in April through December that would otherwise have been 
used for QT flights conducted in January through March.
    The first quarter of the calendar year has historically had the 
lowest level of commercial air tour operations. Providing this 
incentive initially in the first quarter of 2015 is a prudent action 
that gives the FAA and the NPS an opportunity to evaluate the impact of 
the incentive, including the extent to which commercial air tour 
operators continue to use QT in the remainder of the year, which will 
produce additional noise benefits for the park. The FAA and the NPS 
want to incentivize commercial air tour operators to maximize the use 
of QT throughout the year. To that end, the seasonal relief from 
allocations may be extended to part or all of the fourth quarter 
(October 1-December 31) in 2016 and following years, in addition to the 
first quarter, based on an evaluation of the preceding year. In 2015, 
the more that increased QT use reduces the noise level below the noise 
baseline described in the following paragraph, the greater the prospect 
for operators to have additional seasonal relief from allocations in 
2016.
    To meet the statutory conditions in NPATMA and MAP-21, the FAA and 
the NPS must ensure that the cumulative impact of QT operations 
relieved from allocations does not increase noise at the park. For this 
proposed seasonal relief incentive, this means that the annual noise 
from both QT and non-QT commercial air tour flights conducted in the 
Dragon and Zuni Point corridors must not exceed the annual noise level 
of commercial air tour flights in these corridors under the current 
allocation system. The FAA and the NPS have modeled the noise of 
commercial air tour allocations in the Dragon and Zuni Point corridors 
as flown with the 2012 commercial air tour fleet mix and route 
structure--resulting

[[Page 66765]]

in a noise baseline of LEQ12 58.1 dB.\1\ To determine if 
there is an increase in noise associated with this incentive, the FAA 
and the NPS will model the annual noise from all commercial air tour 
operations conducted in the Dragon and Zuni Point corridors and compare 
the annual noise with the seasonal relief incentive in place with the 
noise baseline of all commercial air tour allocations in these 
corridors. Noise will be determined to increase if the annual modeled 
LEQ12 noise of commercial air tour operations in the Dragon 
and Zuni Point corridors exceeds LEQ12 58.1 dB. If noise in 
any year exceeds the noise baseline, the seasonal relief incentive will 
be modified or discontinued as determined necessary to comply with the 
statutory condition.
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    \1\ LEQ12 stands for Equivalent Sound Level for 12 
hours, which is a cumulative measure of the noise exposure of A-
weighted sound levels over a 12-hour period. For this purpose, the 
LEQ was calculated annually and averaged over the park to get a 
single LEQ12 value.
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    To ensure that this incentive will not diminish the achievement of 
substantial restoration of natural quiet and experience at the park, 
all commercial air tour aircraft including QT must adhere to the 
existing route structure throughout the park, including the Dragon and 
Zuni Point corridors.
    This incentive applies only to commercial air tour operators that 
currently have allocations in the Dragon and Zuni Point corridors; 
i.e., operators must have allocations in these corridors in order to be 
relieved from allocations. It does not apply elsewhere in the Grand 
Canyon Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA). There is an ample unused 
surplus of commercial air tour allocations in the SFRA outside of the 
Dragon and Zuni Point corridors; therefore, operators conducting air 
tours in these other SFRA areas do not need relief from allocations and 
would not be incentivized to convert to QT by a seasonal relief 
incentive.
    If the seasonal relief in the Dragon and Zuni Point corridors is a 
successful QT incentive, it is proposed to remain in effect unless it 
violates the statutory condition that the cumulative effect of such 
operations must not increase noise at the Grand Canyon or diminishes 
the achievement of substantial restoration of natural quiet, in which 
case it will be either modified or discontinued; or until a longer term 
approach for managing air tour noise in the park is in place.
    The FAA and the NPS commit to developing a long term approach for 
managing noise in the park in an expeditious manner. Any long term 
approach will continue to incentivize conversion to QT and will not 
penalize earlier conversion to QT realized through the seasonal relief 
incentive.

IV. Implementation Steps

    All comments on this proposed incentive will be considered and will 
inform the agencies' next steps. If the agencies proceed with the 
seasonal relief incentive as proposed in this notice or as modified in 
response to comments, the FAA will implement the incentive by amending 
the operations specifications of commercial air tour operators holding 
allocations in the Dragon and Zuni Point corridors to allow them to 
conduct air tours with QT aircraft without using an allocation for such 
tours in the specified seasonal time periods. The FAA and the NPS will 
cooperatively ensure that the statutory conditions protecting the park 
are met.

V. Environmental Considerations

    This action involving the FAA's amendment of operations 
specifications is categorically excluded from more detailed 
environmental review because it would not have a significant effect on 
the environment. The FAA and the NPS have designed this incentive to 
ensure compliance with the statutory conditions that the cumulative 
impact of QT operating without allocations does not increase noise and 
that the incentive does not diminish the statutory mandate to achieve 
the substantial restoration of natural quiet at the park.

    Issued in Hawthorne, CA, on October 7, 2014.
Glen A. Martin,
Regional Administrator, Western-Pacific Region, Federal Aviation 
Administration.
    Issued in Lakewood, CO, on October 16, 2014.
Sue E. Masica,
Regional Director, Intermountain Region, National Park Service.
[FR Doc. 2014-26668 Filed 11-7-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P