§ 1610.6-2 - Protest procedures.

§ 1610.6-2 Protest procedures.

(a) Any member of the public who participated in the preparation of the resource management plan or plan amendment and has an interest which may be adversely affected by the approval of a proposed resource management plan or plan amendment may protest such approval. A protest may raise only those issues which were submitted for the record during the preparation of the resource management plan or plan amendment (see § 1610.5), unless the protest concerns an issue that arose after the close of the opportunity for public comment on the draft resource management plan.

(1) Submission. The protest must be in writing and must be filed with the Director. The protest may be filed as a hard-copy or electronically. The responsible official shall specify protest filing procedures for each resource management plan or plan amendment, including the method the public may use to submit a protest electronically.

(2) Timing. For resource management plans or plan amendments for which an environmental impact statement was prepared, the protest must be filed within 30 days after the date the Environmental Protection Agency published the notice of availability of the final environmental impact statement in the Federal Register. For plan amendments for which an environmental assessment was prepared, the protest must be filed within 30 days after the date that the BLM notifies the public of the availability of the amendment.

(3) Content requirements. The protest must:

(i) Include the name, mailing address, telephone number, email address (if available), and interest of the person filing the protest;

(ii) State how the protestor participated in the preparation of the resource management plan or plan amendment;

(iii) Identify the plan component(s) believed to be inconsistent with Federal laws or regulations applicable to public lands, or the purposes, policies, and programs implementing such laws and regulations;

(iv) Concisely explain why the plan component(s) is believed to be inconsistent with Federal laws or regulations applicable to public lands, or the purposes, policies, and programs implementing such laws and regulations and, unless the protest concerns an issue that arose after the close of the opportunity for public comment on the draft resource management plan, identify the associated issue or issues raised during the preparation of the resource management plan or plan amendment; and

(v) Include a copy of all documents addressing the issue or issues that were submitted during the planning process by the protesting party or an indication of the date the issue or issues were discussed for the record, unless the protest concerns an issue that arose after the close of the opportunity for public comment on the draft resource management plan.

(4) Availability. Upon request, the Director shall make protests available to the public, withholding any protected information that is exempt from disclosure under applicable laws or regulations.

(b) The Director shall render a written decision on all protests and notify protesting parties of the decision. The decision on the protest and the reasons for the decision shall be made available to the public. The decision of the Director is the final decision of the Department of the Interior. Approval will be withheld on any portion of a resource management plan or plan amendment until final action has been completed on such protest (see § 1610.6-1(b)).

(c) The Director may dismiss any protest that does not meet the requirements of this section. The Director shall notify protesting parties of the dismissal and provide the reasons for the dismissal.