Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 112 Part 5.djvu/381

 PUBLIC LAW 105-335 —OCT. 31, 1998 112 STAT. 3139 Public Law 105-335 105th Congress . An Act To provide for the exchange of certain lands within the State of Utah. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the "Utah Schools and Lands Exchange Act of 1998". SEC. 2. FINDINGS. The Congress finds the following: (1) The State of Utah owns approximately 176,600 acres of land, as well as approximately 24,165 acres of mineral interests, administered by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, within the exterior boundaries of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, established by Presidential proclamation on September 18, 1996, pursuant to section 2 of the Antiquities Act of 1906 (16 U.S.C. 431). The State of Utah also owns approximately 200,000 acres of land, and 76,000 acres of mineral interests, administered by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, within the exterior boundaries of several units of the National Park System and the National Forest System, and within certain Indian reservations in Utah. These lands were granted by Congress to the State of Utah pursuant to the Utah Enabling Act (chap. 138, 28 Stat. 107 (1894)), to be held in trust for the benefit of the State's public school system and other public institutions. (2) Many of the State school trust lands within the monument may contain significant economic quantities of mineral resources, including coal, oil, and gas, tar sands, coalbed methane, titanium, uranium, and other energy and metalliferous minerals. Certain State school trust lands within the Monument, like the Federal lands comprising the Monument, have substantial noneconomic scientific, historic, cultural, scenic, recreational, and natural resources, including ancient Native American archeological sites and rare plant and animal communities. (3) Development of surface and mineral resources on State school trust lands within the Monument could be incompatible with the preservation of these scientific and historic resources for which the Monument was established. Federal acquisition of State school trust lands within the Monument would eliminate this potential incompatibility, and would enhance management of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Oct. 31, 1998 [H.R. 3830] Utah Schools and Lands Exchange Act of 1998. 16 USC 431 note [table].

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