[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 142 (Tuesday, July 24, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38419-38421]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-18379]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
National Nuclear Security Administration
Floodplain Statement of Findings for the Wildfire Hazard
Reduction and Forest Health Improvement Program Projects at Los Alamos
National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico
AGENCY: National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos Area
Office, DOE.
ACTION: Floodplain statement of findings.
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SUMMARY: This is a Floodplain Statement of Findings for the
implementation of individual projects using mechanical and manual
thinning methods to treat the forests at Los Alamos National Laboratory
(LANL), in an effort to reduce fuel loading and wildfire hazards, and
to improve the overall forest health. This Statement of Findings is
prepared in accordance with 10 CFR Part 1022. The National Nuclear
Security Administration (NNSA) plans to implement ecosystem-based
management program projects over the next 18 to 36 months, or until
completed, that will be followed by periodic maintenance projects to
retain the desired end-state for wildfire risk reduction with
enhancements to improve forest health. The projects will include
construction of access roads and fuel breaks as treatment measures.
Wood materials generated by the treatment measures will be either
donated or salvaged; wood waste materials will primarily be disposed of
through chipping and use on-site or by burning in pits with the use of
an air curtain destructor. Implementation of these projects will
include areas of forest located on mesa tops, along canyon sides, and
in canyon bottoms, including floodplain areas (but excluding wetland
areas), located within LANL boundaries in Los Alamos and Santa Fe
Counties, New Mexico. NNSA prepared a floodplain assessment describing
the effects, alternatives, and measures designed to avoid or minimize
potential harm to or within the affected floodplains.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth Withers, Department of
Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos Area
Office, 528 35th Street, Los Alamos, NM 87544. Telephone: (505) 667-
8690; Facsimile: (505) 667-9998; electronic address:
[email protected]. For further information on general DOE floodplain
environmental review requirements, contact: Carol M. Borgstrom,
Director, Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance, EH-42, Department of
Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington DC 20585-0119.
Telephone (202) 586-4600 or (800) 472-2756; facsimile (202) 586-7031.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: A Notice of Floodplain Involvement was
published in the Federal Register on June 29, 2001; this Notice
announced that the Floodplain Assessment to be prepared would be
available in hard copy upon request or electronically at: http://libwww.lanl.gov/pubs/Environment.htm.
The LANL program projects will be composed of a series of
strategically planned projects located over most of LANL (see figure).
These program projects will be implemented in three phases, which will
treat about 10,000 acres, representing about 35 percent of the total of
LANL. The phases are as follows: Phase 1 (high priority strategic
projects, primarily fuel breaks, in heavily forested urban interface
areas to reduce the wildfire hazard to the public, LANL employees, and
key facilities and infrastructure); Phase 2 (moderate priority, larger
forest fuels reduction projects in heavily forested areas to reduce the
general wildfire hazard and improve forest health); and Phase 3 (lower
priority, larger forest fuels reduction projects in more moderately
forested and remote areas to reduce wildfire hazard in general and
improve forest health). Each project as it is developed will follow
certain planning steps that include formulating a plan of action that
will identify and assess potential risks and environmental concerns and
formulating a reasoned treatment plan. These plans will include
facility and forest fire hazard assessment, identification of resource
issues, coordination with neighboring land management agencies and land
owners, development of end-state conditions, and formulation of
treatment and environmental protection measures. Treatment measures
will be identified for each project including the equipment and
involved job performances, and types of treatment measures to be
performed based on the forest and site conditions in the project area.
Integral to treatment measures will be complementary measures to
protect public health and welfare and to protect and enhance cultural
and natural resources. Worker protection and health and safety
measures, cultural resource protection measures, air quality protection
measures, water quality protection measures, threatened and endangered
species protection measures, as well as other biological resources
protection measures will be employed on each project. Wood materials
generated from the treatment activities will be disposed of by donation
or salvage, or may be contracted for to offset program operational
costs; wastes will be disposed of on-site by chipping and reuse as
mulch, by burning within pits using air curtain destructor devices to
enhance the burning process, or at on-site or off-site waste disposal
facilities. Post-treatment assessments will be conducted for each
project area that will include some or all of the following: end-state
conditions assessment, fuel load inventories, ecological field studies,
watershed assessment and monitoring, and data analysis and modeling.
Maintenance measures will be implemented on project areas at least once
every 5 years (or as necessary) to maintain the desired end-state
conditions of the forests at LANL. These maintenance measures will
include the type of treatment measures used to initially treat an area
and may also include periodic mowing and the maintenance of access
roads.
The forest thinning project actions are proposed to be located
within floodplains due to the need to reduce fuel loading in the canyon
areas, especially near LANL facilities and
[[Page 38420]]
areas of urban interface. Thinning within the canyon floodplains will
be conducted in a mosaic pattern to reduce the likelihood of
catastrophic wildfires while maintaining the beneficial floodplain
properties with regards to wetlands protection and soil erosion
retardation. The Final Environmental Assessment for the Wildfire Hazard
Reduction and Forest Health Improvement Program at Los Alamos National
Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico (DOE/EA 1329) considered three
alternatives, all of which included thinning actions in floodplains:
the Proposed Action (the No Burn Alternative); the Limited Burn
Alternative (Waste Only); and the Burn Alternative (Both Treatment and
Forest Waste). The NNSA has issued Findings of No Significant Impacts
(FONSI's) for the No Burn and the Limited Burn Alternatives and now
plans to implement the Limited Burn Alternative. The only other
alternative considered was the No Action Alternative. Both the No Burn
and the Limited Burn Alternatives conform to applicable State or local
floodplain protection standards.
Issued in Los Alamos, New Mexico on July 17, 2001.
David A. Gurule, P.E.,
Area Manager, Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security
Administration, Los Alamos Area Office.
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[FR Doc. 01-18379 Filed 7-23-01; 8:45 am]
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