With all the coherence and intelligibility we have learned to expect from our public servants, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has (in a manner of speaking) announced that it may have finally seen reason and may revise its regulations -- 33 CFR 325 Appendix C. – that ostensibly provide for compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. You can read the announcement at https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=202110&RIN=0710-AB46.
Obtuse as it is, the Corps’ announcement is
welcome, coming as it does in unacknowledged response to decades of criticism
by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), the National Trust for
Historic Preservation (NTHP), the National Conference of State Historic Preservation
Officers (NCSHPO), the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers
(NATHPO), multiple SHPOs and THPOs, and unofficial citizen critics like
me. The Corps has used Appendix C to
allow – indeed encourage – applicants for and holders of its permits to run
roughshod over thousands of historic places and to ignore the interests of
innumerable citizens – notably members of Indian tribes – in their
preservation. Dispensing with Appendix C
and having the Corps join the rest of the federal establishment in following
the ACHP’s regulations (assuming that’s what the Corps
intends to do) would be a big improvement.
However, the ACHP’s
regulations themselves are not without warts, and if the Corps says only that
henceforth it will follow them, a considerable opportunity will have been
missed. I hope the Corps and those with whom it consults (if anyone) will
consider how to make the Section 106 process more inclusive and democratic than
it now is. However, I’m not going to hold my breath.
