Hot Springs National Park; Use of Thermal Water and Commercial Passenger-Carrying Vehicles

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR <SUBAGY>National Park Service</SUBAGY> <CFR>36 CFR Parts 7 and 21</CFR> <DEPDOC>[NPS-HOSP-DTS38124; XXXP1039C6, PPMWHOSPM0, PRCRURUC6.U00000]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1024-AE86</RIN> <SUBJECT>Hot Springs National Park; Use of Thermal Water and Commercial Passenger-Carrying Vehicles</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Park Service, Interior. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The National Park Service (NPS) proposes to amend the special regulations for Hot Springs National Park to update regulations about the use of thermal water. The NPS also proposes to remove outdated regulations concerning commercial passenger-carrying motor vehicles. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments on the proposed rule must be received by 11:59 p.m. ET on January 27, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments, identified by Regulation Identifier Number (RIN) 1024-AE86, by either of the following methods: (1) <E T="03">Electronically:</E> Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/.</E> Follow the instructions for submitting comments. (2) <E T="03">By hard copy:</E> Mail to: Superintendent, Hot Springs National Park, 101 Reserve Street, Hot Springs, Arkansas 71901. <E T="03">Instructions:</E> Comments will not be accepted by fax, email, or in any way other than those specified above. All submissions received must include the words “National Park Service” or “NPS” and must include the docket number or RIN (1024-AE86) for this rulemaking. Comments received may be posted without change to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/,</E> including any personal information provided. <E T="03">Docket:</E> For access to the docket to read comments received, go to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/</E> and search for “1024-AE86” <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Laura Miller, Superintendent, Hot Springs National Park; (501)-620-6735; <E T="03">laura_a_miller@nps.gov.</E> Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. Individuals outside the United States should use the relay services offered within their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States. In compliance with the Providing Accountability Through Transparency Act of 2023, the plain language summary of the proposal is available on <E T="03">Regulations.gov</E> in the docket for this rulemaking. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">Purpose and Significance of Hot Springs National Park</HD> Hot Springs National Park is a 5,500-acre park in Hot Springs, Arkansas, located approximately 55 miles southwest of Little Rock, Arkansas. The U.S. Congress created the park in 1832 when it designated the land as Hot Springs Reservation. In 1921, the reservation name was changed to Hot Springs National Park. Today, the NPS administers the park as one of more than 400 units of the National Park System. The purpose of the park is to protect its unique geothermal spring water and associated lands for public health, wellness, and enjoyment. The park encompasses mostly forested mountains but includes a developed urban edge formed by Bathhouse Row, which was designated a national historic landmark in 1987. The NPS preserves and manages natural and cultural resources in the park for over 1.5 million annual visitors. Geothermal spring water originating within the park provides ample opportunities for public recreation, health, and wellness activities, including therapeutic bathing. The NPS collects and distributes thermal water to public fountains and to various entities (referred to collectively as bathhouses), including spas, a hotel, and a brewery, within and outside the park. The public uses and enjoys thermal water in bathhouses, by viewing display springs, and by collecting and drinking water free of charge from public fountains. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Legal Framework for the Use of Thermal Water</HD> Under the NPS Organic Act of 1916, the NPS has broad authority to regulate the use of the lands and waters within National Park System units. See 54 U.S.C. 100101; 100751(a). The enabling act that established Hot Springs National Park, now codified at 16 U.S.C. Subchapter XL, specifically authorizes the NPS to make all needful rules and regulations regarding the use of thermal water, including the use of thermal water by bathhouses. 16 U.S.C. 363. The park's enabling act authorizes specific uses and establishes conditions for the use of thermal water. 16 U.S.C. 361-363. In 1959, the NPS promulgated regulations, now codified at 36 CFR 7.18(b), prohibiting the removal of water from any source of supply within the park for the purpose of sale, or for any use other than personal drinking. In 1979, the NPS promulgated regulations, now codified at 36 CFR part 21, governing bathhouses that receive thermal water originating in the park and use it for purposes authorized by the superintendent. These regulations primarily address bathing in thermal water for medical treatment. They contain specific provisions about registration of prescribing physicians, health examinations for infectious or communicable diseases, and the control of persons with acute or infectious diseases and other maladies. Since 1979, the use of thermal water in bathhouses has evolved. Historical use of thermal water for medicinal purposes has been largely replaced by bathing for recreation or general health and wellness. The NPS receives requests for new uses of thermal water within and outside the park and the existing regulations do not clearly define procedures and standards for evaluating such requests. In particular, the existing regulations do not provide adequate notice about specific provisions in the park's enabling act about written instruments, priority users, surplus water, and rates and costs, none of which are addressed in the existing regulations. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Proposed Rule</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">Summary of the Proposed Rule</HD> The NPS proposes to update park regulations about the use of thermal water to reflect contemporary uses of water and provisions in the park's enabling act about the use of thermal water. For easier reference and improved transparency, all regulations addressing the use of thermal water would be located in paragraph (b) of § 7.18, rather than split between paragraph (b) of § 7.18 and part 21. This rule would remove part 21 in its entirety. This rule also would remove existing regulations in part 21 about registration of physicians (§ 21.4), requirements to have medical prescriptions before bathing (§ 21.5), control of persons with diseases and other maladies (§ 21.6), health examinations and infectious diseases (§ 21.7), solicitation by bathhouse employees for tips (§ 21.9), loss of personal valuables (§ 21.10), and the redemption and loss of bath tickets (§§ 21.11-21.12) as outdated and unnecessary because of changes in how the public uses thermal water and changes in how bathhouses operate. In addition to updating regulations about the use of thermal water, this rule would revise existing paragraph (a) in § 7.18. This paragraph contains outdated permit and fee requirements for commercial passenger-carrying motor vehicles operating in the park. The NPS has a statutory authority to manage these services through commercial use authorizations (CUAs) that it did not have when paragraph (a) was promulgated. 54 U.S.C. 101925. Consistent with this authority, the NPS manages commercial passenger-carrying motor vehicles in the park through CUAs and applicable policy. In order to provide notice to the public, including affected service providers, this rule would replace the existing language in paragraph (a) with a statement that CUAs and fees for the operation of commercial passenger-carrying vehicles will be required in accordance with 54 U.S.C. 101925. Below is a paragraph-by-paragraph analysis of the proposed rule that explains changes to existing similar regulations, if any. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Section-by-Section Analysis</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">Paragraph (b)(1)—Definitions</HD> <GPOTABLE COLS="2" OPTS="L2,tp0,i1" CDEF="s25,r25"> <TTITLE> </TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Proposed regulation</CHED> <CHED H="1">Existing regulations</CHED> <ROW> <ENT I="01">§ 7.18(b)(1) Definitions</ENT> <ENT>• § 7.18(b) Use of water.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="22"> </ENT> <ENT>• § 21.1 Definitions.</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> Existing regulations in § 21.1 define the terms “physician,” “registered physician,” “employee,” and “bathhouse”. The proposed rule would remove definitions for “physician” and “registered physician” because those terms would no longer be used in the regulations due to changes in how thermal water is used by the public. The existing definition of “employee” is any person licensed or certified by a State or territory in his or her specialty, or certified by the superintendent to perform special services in a bathhouse. The rule would remove the definition of “employee” as redundant with a provision in new paragraph (b)(3)(v) that would require bathhouses to ensure and maintain employee licenses and certifications where required by Federal or State law. The remainder of the existing definition of “employee” is outdated and unnecessary because the superintendent no longer issues such certifications. The proposed rule would simplify the definition of “bathhouse” by removing unnecessary references to individuals, trustees, partnerships, corporations, and business entities as potential operators, which is not relevant to the issue of authorized use of th ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 47k characters. 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