§460u–18 Study of Areas Iii–a, Iii–c, and Ii–a; Report to Congressional Committees

Summary

By July 1, 1977, the Secretary must send a study to the Committees on Interior and Insular Affairs of the United States Congress about areas III–A, III–C, and II–A shown on map number 626–91007. The Secretary must let the State of Indiana, local officials, affected property owners, and the public take part and testify at a public hearing, and must include the hearing record with the study. For areas III–A and III–C the study must cover whether the government should buy any part, ways to control beach erosion and who would pay, how to assure public access and needed facilities, recreational uses and options, environmental effects on the Park, and the costs to the United States (including extra management and local service costs such as for Beverly Shores). For area II–A the study must look at protecting dunes, wetlands, plants and animals, restoring Cowles Bog watersheds, suitable public access, preventing harm from construction or pollution (including waste discharge and water movement), and the economic impact on the utility and its customers if the area is acquired. The Secretary must make a written agreement with Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) for Unit II–A, called the Greenbelt. That agreement must give the Park Service access for management and a public hiking trail, let the Park Service enter the Greenbelt for resource work and interpretation, require NIPSCO to keep the Greenbelt in its natural state or restore it after temporary work, and require NIPSCO to notify the Park Service and the named Congressional committees if it plans a different use and wait three years after that notice before changing use. While that agreement is in force and being followed, the Secretary may not buy NIPSCO’s land or interests in the Greenbelt.