The National Park Service is not going to meet its self-imposed deadline of releasing a Draft Environmental Impact Statement and identifying a preferred alternative for managing off-road vehicle operation on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore this fall.
?It?s likely to be available no earlier than late December or early January,? Seashore Superintendent Mike Murray said in a meeting with reporters last week. ?But I just can?t tell you exactly when.?
?That is later than we had hoped,? Murray added.
In a September meeting, Murray said he hoped that the document would be available for public review in late November or early December. In a September meeting, Murray said he hoped that the document would be available for public review in late November or early December.
As the release of the DEIS gets pushed back, the Park Service comes under increasing pressure to complete the ORV rulemaking process under the terms of a consent decree that now sets ORV rules and protections for nesting birds and turtles on the seashore.
Under the consent decree, the Park Service is required to have a record of decision on a final rule by Dec. 31, 2010, and to implement a special regulation on ORV rules in the seashore by April 1, 2011.
Obviously time is running out to ram a big and complicated document through the bureaucratic morass of Washington, D.C.
The Federal Register announcement of the members of the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee hung around desks in D.C. for months and months before it was finally published and became official.
The Park Service really can?t afford a repeat of that performance.
This time U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle, who signed the consent decree, is waiting.
And the Park Service has 13 months to meet his expectations.
The Park Service has been without an ORV rule, which has been required by federal regulations for more than 30 years. Park officials were hopeful that the rule would be worked out by a negotiated rulemaking committee of stakeholders. After about a year and a half of meetings, the committee ended its work without making a recommendation to the Park Service.
So now the Park Service must do the rulemaking.
Operating under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), park leadership must complete a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on off-road vehicle operation in the seashore, choose a preferred alternative, consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the alternative, draft a proposed rule, get the DEIS approved by the Department of the Interior, get it published in the Federal Register for 60 days of public comments, and have public meetings in the state and the regional on the DEIS and preferred alternative.
The delay, Murray said, is not due to a ?lack of resources.?
He said he is spending 100 percent of his time reading draft chapters, and that several other staff members are also devoting all, or almost all, of their time reviewing the draft.
?I think it?s just the complexity of the plan,? he said.
Murray said there are five chapters in the DEIS, and each goes through three rounds of review. On Nov. 18, he said, park staff was on the last round for the first three chapters and almost finished with the second round on chapters four and five. Chapter 4 is the environmental analysis.
?The first round,? he said, ?is most complicated?.And once the second round is done, the third goes pretty fast.?
Murray said that his goal is to ?pave the way? for an expedited review at higher levels of the National Park Service and Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C.
?The Park Service,? he said, ?is obligated to do the best we can to meet our deadlines, but we are also responsible to develop a good plan?.There is a fine line between quick and good.?
A Notice of Availability of DEIS will kick off the 60-day public comment period. The public will be able to respond to the park planning Web site, by writing via regular mail, or in person at a series of public meetings.
Murray said there would probably be about five ?hearing-style? meetings for the public to get information and make formal comments.
He thinks three will be on the Outer Banks ? perhaps on Hatteras, Ocracoke, and the northern beaches. One will be in central North Carolina, perhaps Raleigh, and one will be in the Northern Virginia-Washington, D.C. area.
Murray said he wouldn?t be surprised if there were large turnouts at the meetings.
After the Park Service has received comments on the DEIS, it must prepare a ?comment analysis? and ?response to comments.?
Along with that, NPS will publish a proposed rule that corresponds to the preferred alternative in the DEIS. There is also a 60-day public comment period on the proposed rule.
The next step is a Final Environmental Impact Statement and, finally, the Record of Decision.
Murray indicated that the park staff has identified the preferred alternative, but would say only that ?different stakeholders from the committee will recognize some of their work.?
Here is the tentative timeline that Murray gave at last September?s meeting with the media, and that the Park Service must stick to fairly closely to meet the deadlines in the consent decree:
? Winter, 2009. Office of Management and Budget reviews benefit/cost and regulatory analyses for the proposed rule, meetings, and comment period.
? Spring, 2010. Analysis of public comment on DEIS is completed, NPS receives biological opinion from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, analysis of public comment on proposed rule begins, Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) is prepared and responses to public comment begin.
? Summer, 2010. FEIS and responses to public comments are completed, FEIS is approved by the Department of the Interior, Notice of Availability for FEIS is published in Federal Register.
? Fall, 2010. The Record of decision on ORV rulemaking is drafted and signed and a summary is published in the Federal Register.
? Winter, 2010. The final rule is approved by DOI and published in the Federal Register.
Murray says the completed DEIS will be about 500 pages ? ?a ream of paper.?
Many of us are eager to weigh in with comments, so I guess the message here may be to stock up on printer ink and copy paper over the holidays and get ready for January.
Between an expected Record of Decision on the Bonner Bridge replacement and the DEIS on ORV rulemaking, we should have an interesting winter.
500 pages? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! The Health bill that would regulate/control 1/6 of our economy is only 2000 pages by comparison. You won?t be able to go on the beach without a lawyer. The way these things usually work, the more complex they are the more problems we?re likely to have. The Consent decree did an efficient job of closing the beaches with a brisk 23 pages.
Quote:
“Obviously time is running out to ram a big and complicated document through the bureaucratic morass of Washington, D.C.
The Federal Register announcement of the members of the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee hung around desks in D.C. for months and months before it was finally published and became official.
The Park Service really can’t afford a repeat of that performance.”
Worse yet, let?s not forget they lost the first plan back in 1978 which got us in this mess. Perhaps that?s why the 500 pages, too big to lose. And when this doesn?t get done in time who will be punished for the NPS continued failure? Why the residents, property owners and park visitors of course.
I?m beginning to doubt this will get done before we suffer the wrath of Khan?er Boyle.
500 pages? My gawd, you would think they were planning the first manned trip to Mars rather than simply setting forth rules about the who when and where’s of the simple act of driving on the beach. A perfect example of why our modern government continues to disappoint: overly complicated, misguided in their goals, late to the table, and totally out of the control of the citizens the government is supposed to represent.
And, I agree with Denny, you will need a lawyer just to drive on the beach.
And note, in the past public meetings on such items have been held in the Richmond VA area and Murray has mentioned a couple times recently about an added meeting in the Hampton Roads area.
So rather than giving added opportunity for public exposure for the most complicated and controversial item ever done for CHNSRA, since the initial forming of the Seashore and land procurement, NPS looks to be cutting back on informing the public in person.
I suspect far more folks from these two areas visit CHNSRA than the DC area. Oh, I forgot the DOW lawyer (Rylander) lives in that area. Note: SELC and NC Audubon in the Raleigh area. How convenient for all except many plain old tax paying users.
So everyone from the Richmond / Hampton Roads area fill Holda?s and Murray?s e:mail in box at
Cyndy_Holda@nps.gov
mike_murray@nps.gov
and ask if that was just an oversite about Richmond and Hampton Roads.
UNSAT if correct is my take.
I received the following clarification from Mike Murray so e:mail inundation is niot necessary.
[qiote]
Hi Ted,
I believe the discussion may have been misunderstood. We talked about
having previously held around five public meetings during earlier phases
of the ORV management planning process, which has usually included an ?out
of town? meeting in Raleigh and one in either Washington, DC or Richmond.
For the DEIS, we are contemplating holding five public meetings again
(three on the Outer Banks and two ?out of town?), but this time we are
thinking about holding one meeting in central North Carolina (e.g.,
Raleigh) and one in central /eastern Virginia (e.g., the northern Hampton
Roads area). I imagine anything we do in terms of meeting locations will
be subject to criticism, but we have not determined the exact locations, so
I appreciate the input.
Have a nice Thanksgiving !
Mike Murray
Superintendent
[unquote]
My reply to Mike re the above
[quote]
Mike,
Thanks for the rapid comeback and clarification.
If the limit is five meetings then having one say in the Williamsburg area certainly makes sense. There are an awful lot of visitors from the Richmond / Hampton Roads area and a meeting there could cover both regions easily. Not too hard for DC area folks to make Williamsburg either.
Greensboro might be better for NC as that is not hard for either Charlotte or Raleigh to make and certainly good for the Winston Salem area as well. Western NC (eg Asheville area) is not out of the question for there either.
Cheers Ya?ll
Ted A. Hamilton
(aka Salvo Jimmy)
[unquote]
There is one undisputable fact ? the ?interim plan? worked well.
Eliminate the 500 pages of probable bureaucratic doublespeak, save several million $$$$ and save the economy of HI and officially make it the policy.
That may not fit with the hidden agenda of the NPS but it would be the right thing to do for an agency supposedly run as a public service.
Good luck you guys(you need it).
Happy Thanksgiving,
Steve Coleman
I don?t understand why folks or shocked. the workings of any part of the US government take forever to function. lord willing, they will get it done and the judge will keep his hands off and of course the econutz will go away , then we might see some success?-one can only hope
The NPS has already stated that they know the Preferred Alternative.
Murray indicated that the park staff has identified the preferred alternative, but would say only that “different stakeholders from the committee will recognize some of their work.”
Why are they late with decission that has already been made.
Now we get to digest 500 pages of justification, for a position already taken.
I say we lock the NPS and USFWS in a room and don’t let them out untill they reveal a plan they will defend against all oposition.
Negotiations between the stakeholders failed.
It’s up to our government to tell us how it is.
Step up guys. Stop hiding behind the beuracratic process and let the fight begin.
The way things are going it will be up to Judge Boyle and we know that future.
I used to be paranoid untill RegNeg. Now I know that there are people out their who want to strip from me the pleasure of these public lands.
Well, I can see where this is all going to end up: NPS will be late in filing its Final Rule, so hizzoner Boyle will completely shut the beaches down out here until NPS complies with the Consent Decree.
So DOW, Audubon, etc. will get exactly what they have wanted all along ? No Humans One The Beaches of CHNSRA.