Special Areas: State Irrigation Districts

I. Public Comment Procedures II. Background and Discussion of Proposed rule III. Procedural Matters

I. Public Comment Procedures

Written Comments

Written comments on the proposed rule should be specific, should be confined to issues pertinent to the rule, and should explain the reason for any recommended change. Where possible, comments should reference the specific section or paragraph of the proposal which the comment addresses. BLM may not necessarily consider or include in the Administrative Record for the rule comments which BLM receives after the close of the comment period (see DATES) or comments delivered to an address other than those listed above (see ADDRESSES).

II. Background and Discussion of Proposed Rule

This proposed rule will remove 43 CFR part 2780, Special Areas: State Irrigation Districts, from the Code of Federal Regulations. The regulations in part 2780 implement the Act of August 11, 1916 entitled ``An Act to Promote the Reclamation of Arid Lands,'' 43 U.S.C. 621 et seq. Part 2780 was originally issued as Circular Number 592 on March 6, 1918, and has existed in similar form since modified in 1922 to accommodate amendments to the Act. These regulations describe the procedures a state irrigation district uses to apply for secretarial approval of an irrigation plan. If an application is approved, all unentered public lands within the state irrigation district, and entered lands for which no certificate has been issued, are subject to the same provisions of State law relating to the reclamation of arid lands for agricultural purposes as those which apply to private lands within the district. Such lands are subject to a lien for all taxes and assessments lawfully levied by the district on unpatented land. The district also has the right to sell land that was

entered at the time of a tax levy for nonpayment of tax. We have only one record at BLM of any activity in this program during the last 40 years, occurring in 1971. We accessed our online case recordation system and found no other record of any recent case activity. We also searched a legal data base and found that the last time the statute or implementing regulation was cited in a reported civil case was in 1948. The program's inactivity and absence of civil case citations indicate that this regulation may be obsolete. Furthermore, we believe that the regulations are impractical to administer due to the scarcity of water in public land states for agricultural purposes. For these reasons, we believe that continued publication of 43 CFR part 2780 is unnecessary and contrary to the public interest.

III. Procedural Matters

National Environmental Policy Act

The BLM has prepared an environmental assessment (EA), and has found that the proposed rule would not constitute a major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment under section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(C). The BLM has placed the EA and the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) on file in the BLM Administrative Record at the address specified previously. The BLM invites the public to review these documents by contacting us at the addresses listed above (see ADDRESSES), and suggests that anyone wishing to submit comments in response to the EA and FONSI do so in accordance with the ``Written Comments'' section above, or contact us directly.

Paperwork Reduction Act

The rule does not contain information collection requirements which the Office of Management and Budget must approve under the Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

Congress enacted the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 (RFA), 5 U.S.C. 601 et seq., to ensure that government regulations do not unnecessarily or disproportionately burden small entities. The RFA requires a regulatory flexibility analysis if a rule would have a significant economic impact, either detrimental or beneficial, on a substantial number of small entities. The BLM has determined under the RFA that this proposed rule would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities.

Executive Order 12866

According to the criteria listed in section 3(f) of Executive Order 12866, BLM has determined that the proposed rule is not a significant regulatory action. As such, the proposed rule is not subject to Office of Management and Budget review under section 6(a)(3) of the order.

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act

Removal of 43 CFR part 2780 will not result in any unfunded mandate to state, local or tribal governments in the aggregate, or to the private sector, of $100,000,000 or more in any one year.

Executive Order 12612

The proposed rule would not have sufficient federalism implications to warrant BLM preparation of a Federalism Assessment (FA).

Executive Order 12630

The proposed rule does not represent a government action capable of interfering with constitutionally protected property rights. Section 2(a)(1) of Executive Order 12630 specifically exempts actions abolishing regulations or modifying regulations in a way that lessens interference with private property use from the definition of ``policies that have takings implications.'' Since the primary function of the proposed rule is to abolish unnecessary regulations, there will be no private property rights impaired as a result. Therefore, BLM has determined that the rule would not cause a taking of private property, or require further discussion of takings implications under this Executive Order.

Executive Order 12988

The Department of the Interior has determined that this rule meets the applicable standards provided in sections 3(a) and 3(b)(2) of Executive Order 12988.

Author

The principal author of this proposed rule is Jeff Holdren, Realty Use Group, assisted by Ian Senio, Regulatory Management Team, Bureau of Land Management, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, DC 20240; Telephone 202/452-7779.

List of Subjects for 43 CFR Part 2780

Irrigation, Public lands--sale, Reclamation.

For the reasons stated in the preamble, and under the authority of 43 U.S.C. 1740, part 2780 of group 2700, subchapter B, chapter II of title 43 of the Code of Federal Regulations is removed.

Dated: September 4, 1996. Sylvia V. Baca, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior. [FR Doc. 96-23332 Filed 9-12-96; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4310-84-P