[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 187 (Thursday, September 28, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45353-45354]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-20839]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration


Notice of Cancellation of Preparation of Environmental Impact 
Statement for Replacement General Aviation Airport, Mesquite, Clark 
County, Nevada

AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration, DOT.

ACTION: Notice of cancellation of preparation of Environmental Impact 
Statement.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announces that it 
has discontinued preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) 
for a construction of a Replacement General Aviation Airport for 
Mesquite, Nevada. On November 14, 2011, FAA published a notice of 
suspension of the EIS in the Federal Register (76 FR 70530). The FAA 
received a letter dated September 27, 2011, from the City of Mesquite, 
Nevada asking the FAA to suspend any further work on the EIS. The 
reasons for this action include the local economic conditions in 
Mesquite and other local fiscal and budgetary constraints. The Mesquite 
Lands Act of 1988 (the Act), as amended, provided land to the City of 
Mesquite for the replacement airport, expired on November 14, 2011 and 
was not extended or renewed by Congress. The original purpose and need 
for the proposed relocated airport no longer exists. The City of 
Mesquite, the owner and operator of the existing Mesquite Municipal 
Airport, has not included a replacement airport in its 5-year Airport 
Capital Improvement Program. As a result, FAA has determined the 
proposed replacement General Aviation Airport for Mesquite, Nevada is 
not ripe for decision at this time.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David B. Kessler, AICP, Regional 
Environmental Protection Specialist, AWP-610.1, Airports Division, 
Federal Aviation Administration, Western-Pacific Region, 15000 Aviation 
Boulevard, Lawndale, California 90261, Telephone: 310-725-3615.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On December 8, 2004, the Federal Aviation 
Administration (FAA) issued a Notice of Intent in the Federal Register 
(69 FR 71097) to prepare an EIS for the proposed construction and 
operation of a Replacement General Aviation (GA) Airport, for the City 
of Mesquite, in eastern Clark County, Nevada. The City of Mesquite 
proposed to build the replacement airport south of Interstate Highway 
15 between Exit 108 and 109 on the Mormon Mesa, about 15 miles west of 
the exiting Mesquite Municipal Airport and change the airport land use 
to residential land use, including construction of a new arterial 
roadway through the existing airport property. To maintain access to 
the National Air Transportation System, the city also proposed to 
design, fund, and build a replacement GA airport at Mormon Mesa that 
would provide GA facilities and services to the flying public, support 
regional economic development at no cost to the FAA. The City proposed 
to build the replacement GA airport to meet FAA Airport Reference Code 
(ARC) B-II standards with a new runway 7,500 feet long by 100 feet 
wide. On May 16, 2008, the Notice of Availability of FAA's Draft EIS 
was published in the Federal Register (73 FR 28461). The FAA received 
34 comment letters on the Draft EIS from federal, state and local 
agencies, as well as the general public. In March 2009, as FAA was 
preparing responses to

[[Page 45354]]

comments received on the 2008 Draft EIS, FAA determined there were 
significant new circumstances or information relevant to environmental 
concerns and bearing on the Proposed Project or its impacts. Consistent 
with Title 40 CFR 1501.9, FAA decided to prepare a Revised Draft 
Environmental Impact Statement (RDEIS).
    On September 27, 2011, the FAA received a letter from the City of 
Mesquite, asking the FAA to suspend any additional work on the EIS for 
the proposed Replacement GA Airport EIS. The City of Mesquite explained 
the postponement was based on local economic conditions and other local 
fiscal and budgetary constraints.
    On November 14, 2011, FAA published a notice of Suspension of the 
EIS in the Federal Register (76 FR 70530). In 2014, the FAA provided a 
grant of funds to the City of Mesquite to install weather reporting 
equipment at the existing Mesquite Municipal Airport. In 2015, FAA 
provided a grant of funds to the City of Mesquite to update its Airport 
Master Plan. The City completed its Master Plan in the June 2017. The 
City did not include a replacement airport proposal in its 5-year 
Airport Capital Improvement Program provided to the FAA.
    The Mesquite Lands Act of 1988, as amended (Pub. L. 99-549) 
provided the City with the opportunity to select a specified number of 
acres of federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management to build 
a replacement airport on the Mormon Mesa. Since Public Law 99-549 
expired, the federal land on the Mormon Mesa for the replacement 
airport is no longer available. The original purpose and need to change 
the land use of the existing airport to residential land use and 
replace the airport no longer exists. There is no demonstrated 
aeronautical need for the replacement airport and the information in 
the 2008 Draft EIS is also no longer valid. Thus, FAA is terminating 
this EIS.

    Issued in Hawthorne, California, on September 19, 2017.
Mark A. McClardy,
Director, Office of Airports, Western-Pacific Region, AWP-600.
[FR Doc. 2017-20839 Filed 9-27-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-13-P