GWMP Closure Order # 25-006 Pursuant to 36 CFR Section 1.5, the National Park Service is imposing a temporary closure to the Union Arch Trail, from the present through August 31, 2025. Union Arch Trail serves as a trail connection to the C&O Canal towpath near Lock 7. On July 31, 2025, a heavy rain event caused the Cabin John Creek to swell, depositing significant debris blocking the storm water culvert and eroded away soil surrounding the trail to the towpath. The debris and erosion affecting around the Potomac Interceptor sewer line has made the area unsafe for visitor use. The area will remain closed for the duration of clean-up work to provide for the maintenance of public health and safety. It is expected that work to restore the area will be complete by the end of August 2025. Unauthorized entry or activity is prohibited in this area while it is closed. This temporary closure is not of a nature, magnitude, and duration that will result in a significant alteration in the public use pattern, insofar as these clean-up activities are necessary to restore safe public access that has remained interrupted since July 30, 2025, since which time the area has been closed on an emergency basis. Nor will this temporary closure adversely affect the park's natural, aesthetic, scenic or cultural values, require a long-term or significant modification in resource management objectives, and is not of a highly controversial nature given the need to protect park visitors in this dangerous area. Fences and/or signage, traffic cones and other barriers will mark closed areas. Given the safety protections necessary in the closed area, less restrictive measures will not suffice. The closures will not adversely affect the park’s natural, aesthetic, or cultural values. Accordingly, pursuant to 36 CFR Section 1.5(b), publication as rulemaking in the Federal Register is unwarranted. This is consistent with hundreds of past partial and temporary park closures, the legal opinion of the Office of the Solicitor, and case law. See Mahoney v. Norton, No. 02-1715 (D.D.C. August 29, 2002), plaintiff’s emergency motion for injunction pending appeal denied Mahoney v. Norton, No. 02- 5275 (D.C. Cir. September 9, 2002) (per curiam); Picciotto v. United States, No. 99- 2113 (D.D.C. August 6, 1999); Picciotto v. United States, No. 94-1935 (D.D.C. September 9, 1994); Picciotto v. Lujan, No. 90-1261 (D.D.C. May 30, 1990); Picciotto v. Hodel, No. 87-3290 (D.D.C. January 26, 1988); Spiegel v. Babbitt, 855 F.Supp. 402 (D.D.C. 1994), aff'd in part w/o op. 56 F.3d 1531 (D.C. Cir. 1995), reported in full, 1995 US App. Lexis 15200 (D.C. Cir. May 31, 1995). Pursuant to 36 CFR Section 1.7, notice of this temporary closure will be made through media advisories, fencing and posting of signs at conspicuous locations in the affected park area. Finally, pursuant to 36 CFR Section (1.5), this determination is available to the public upon request. Approval: Jennifer Madello, Superintendent Date: August 6, 2025 |
Last updated: August 7, 2025