Subject: Los Alamos Area Office, National Nuclear Security
[Federal Register: June 29, 2001 (Volume 66, Number 126)]
[Notices]
[Page 34624-34625]
>From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr29jn01-46]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Los Alamos Area Office, National Nuclear Security Administration;
Notice of Floodplain Involvement for the Wildfire Hazard Reduction and
Forest Health Improvement Program Projects at Los Alamos National
Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
AGENCY: National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos Area
Office, DOE.
ACTION: Notice of floodplain involvement.
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SUMMARY: The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the Los
Alamos Area Office at the Department of Energy (DOE) plans to implement
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. These ecosystem-based management program projects will
be implemented over the next 18 to 36 months, or until completed, and
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 the Los
Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) boundaries in Los Alamos and Santa Fe
Counties, New Mexico. In accordance with 10 CFR part 1022, DOE will
prepare a floodplain assessment and will perform this proposed action
in a manner so as to avoid or minimize potential harm to or within the
affected floodplain.
DATES: Comments are due to the address below no later than July 16,
2001.
ADDRESSES: Written comments should be addressed to: Elizabeth Withers,
Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Los
Alamos Area Office, 528 35th Street, Los Alamos, NM 87544, or submit
them to the Mail Room at the above address between the hours of 8:00 am
and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Written comments may also be sent
electronically to: ewithers@doeal.gov or by facsimile to (505) 667-
9998.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Everett Trollinger, Department of
Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos Area
Office, 528 35th Street, Los Alamos, NM 87544. Telephone (505) 667-
0281, facsimile (505) 667-9998.
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, 100
Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington DC 20585-0119. Telephone (202)
586-4600 or (800) 472-2756, facsimile (202) 586-7031.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On August 9, 2000, the NNSA issued a Finding
of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Proposed Action (the No Burn
Alternative) together with 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). More
recently, on May 29, 2001, the NNSA issued a FONSI for the Limited Burn
Alternative (Waste Only) analyzed in DOE/EA 1329. The NNSA now plans on
implementing the actions described in the Limited Burn Alternative of
DOE/EA 1329 beginning in July 2001. Up to an estimated 10,000 acres
(ac) (4,000 hectares (ha)), or about 35 percent of LANL, will be
treated over the next 18 to 36 months or until completed.
Implementation of program 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. The
treatment of LANL forested areas will include the use of mechanical
thinning and thinning with hand-held tools and equipment.
The program projects will be composed of a series of strategically
planned projects implemented in three phases. 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 pubic, 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
[[Page 34625]]
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
would 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 would be
employed on each project. Wood materials and wastes generated from the
treatment activities would be disposed of as follows: wood materials
will be donated or salvaged for use by the surrounding communities, 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 waste disposal facilities. Additionally, waste
may be sent to off-site disposal facilities as well. 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 would
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. NNSA may also consider the
use of prescribed burning under very carefully controlled conditions in
the future as a forest maintenance tool. However, at this time, DOE is
still in the process of developing a complex-wide policy on prescribed
burning and a moratorium on the use prescribed burning at DOE sites is
in effect until the policy has been issued. NNSA will likely revisit
this issue at a later time.
Additional information about wildfire hazard reduction projects can
be found in the April 2001 document entitled Wildfire Hazard Reduction
Project Plan (LA-UR-01-2017). Both DOE/EA 1329 and this plan are
available by contacting Elizabeth Withers at (505) 667-8690, or writing
to her at the previously identified Los Alamos Area Office address.
These documents have also been placed electronically at: http://lib-
www.lanl.gov/pubs/Environment.htm and in hard copy at the DOE Reading
Rooms at: the Community Relations Office, Los Alamos National
Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545; and the Government Information
Department, Zimmerman Library, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque,
NM 87131-1466.
In accordance with DOE regulations for compliance with floodplain
and wetlands environmental review requirements (10 CFR Part 1022), NNSA
will prepare a floodplain assessment for this proposed action, which
will be made available by contacting Elizabeth Withers at the
previously identified addresses, phone and facsimile numbers. It will
available electronically at: http://lib-www.lanl.gov/pubs/
Environment.htm. After DOE issues the assessment, a floodplain
statement of findings will be published in the Federal Register.
Issued in Los Alamos, New Mexico on June 25, 2001.
David A. Gurul,
Area Manager, U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security
Administration Los Alamos Area Office.
[FR Doc. 01-16451 Filed 6-28-01; 8:45 am]
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