§157 Application for Withdrawal, Reservation, or Restriction; Specifications

Summary

When an application is filed on or after February 28, 1958 for a withdrawal, reservation, or restriction that will need an Act of Congress to approve, it must include eight specific pieces of information. The application must say who is asking and who will use the area; where the area is with a detailed description of the outside boundaries and any exceptions; the gross land and water acreage inside those boundaries and the net public acreage covered; the purpose or purposes, or a statement that the purposes are classified for national security; whether the use will cause contamination and whether that contamination will be permanent or temporary; how long the withdrawal, reservation, or restriction will last; whether and how the use will affect the ongoing operation of public land laws and federal rules about minerals, timber, other materials, grazing, fish and wildlife, water, and scenic, wilderness, recreation, or other values; and, if the use involves water in any State, whether the intended using agency has or plans to acquire water rights under State law, subject to existing rights.