[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 87 (Wednesday, May 6, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25022-25025]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-11990]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for
the Proposed Conveyance and Transfer of Certain Land Tracts Located at
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos and Santa Fe Counties, NM
AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of intent.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces its intent to
prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) to assess the potential
environmental impacts of conveying and transferring certain land tracts
located within the Incorporated Counties of Los Alamos and Santa Fe and
at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in north central New Mexico.
This EIS for the proposed Conveyance and Transfer of Certain Land
Tracts (Conveyance and Transfer EIS) will evaluate the action mandated
by Congress to convey fee title to lands allocated for conveyance to
Los Alamos County (County) and transfer to the Secretary of the
Interior, in trust for the San Ildefonso Pueblo (Pueblo),
administrative jurisdiction of parcels of land to be determined by
agreement pursuant to Section 632 of the Departments of Commerce,
Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations
Act, 1998, Public Law 105-119. The EIS will analyze the potential
impacts of up to
[[Page 25023]]
three uses of land for the individual tracts: (1) Historic, cultural,
or environmental preservation purposes, (2) economic diversification
purposes, or (3) community self-sufficiency purposes. The EIS will also
analyze any connected actions regarding the relocation of existing site
tenants and the No Action Alternative of retaining the land tracts in
their current state with the continuance of the existing uses of land.
DOE invites individuals, organizations, and agencies to present oral or
written comments concerning the scope of the EIS, including the
environmental issues and alternatives that the EIS should address.
DATES: The public scoping period starts with the publication of this
Notice in the Federal Register and will continue until June 30, 1998.
DOE will consider all comments received or postmarked by that date in
defining the scope of this EIS. Comments received or postmarked after
that date will be considered to the extent practicable. Public scoping
meetings are scheduled to be held as follows:
May 19, 1998, 2:00-5:00 p.m. and 6:00-8:00 p.m., U.S. Department of
Energy, Los Alamos Area Office, 528 35th Street, Los Alamos, New
Mexico.
May 20, 1998, 2:00-5:00 p.m. and 6:00-8:00 p.m., Double Tree Hotel,
3347 Cerrillos Road; Santa Fe, New Mexico.
May 21, 1998, 2:00-5:00 p.m. and 6:00-8:00 p.m., Northern New Mexico
Community Center, 921 Paseo de Onate; Espanola, New Mexico.
The DOE will publish additional notices on the date, times, and
location of the scoping meetings in local newspapers in advance of the
scheduled meetings. Any necessary changes will be announced in the
local media.
ADDRESSES: Written comments or suggestions concerning the scope of the
Conveyance and Transfer EIS or requests for more information on the EIS
and public scoping process should be directed to: Ms. Elizabeth
Withers, EIS Document Manager, U.S. Department of Energy, Los Alamos
Area Office, 528 35th Street, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87544, facsimile
at (505) 667-4872, or E-mail at [email protected].
In addition to providing oral comments at the public scoping
meetings, all interested parties are invited to record their comments,
ask questions concerning the EIS, or request to be placed on the EIS
mailing or document distribution list by leaving a message on the EIS
Hotline at (toll free) 1-800-791-2280. The Hotline will have
instructions on how to record comments and requests.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on DOE's NEPA process,
please contact: Carol Borgstrom, Director, Office of NEPA Policy and
Assistance (EH-42), U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue
SW, Washington, DC 20585, (202) 586-4600, or leave a message at 1-800-
472-2756.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is located in north-central
New Mexico, 60 miles north-northeast of Albuquerque, 25 miles northwest
of Santa Fe, and 20 miles southwest of Espanola in Los Alamos and Santa
Fe Counties. It is located between the Jemez Mountains to the west and
the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Rio Grande to the east. LANL
occupies an area of approximately 27,832 acres or approximately 43
square miles and is operated for DOE by a contractor, the University of
California. It is a multidisciplinary, multipurpose institution engaged
in theoretical and experimental research and development. LANL has
mission responsibilities in national security, energy resources,
environmental quality, and science.
Section 632 of the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the
Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1998, Public Law
(P.L.) 105-119, enacted November 26, 1997, established certain actions
and reports to be completed by the DOE. It requires that the Secretary
of Energy (Secretary) take certain actions with respect to the
conveyance of certain suitable tracts of land at or in the vicinity of
LANL, which are under the jurisdiction or administrative control of the
Secretary, to the Incorporated County of Los Alamos, or their designee
in fee title, and that administrative jurisdiction over certain other
of these tracts be transferred to the Secretary of the Interior in
trust for the Pueblo of San Ildefonso. The legislation provides that
the purpose of these conveyances and transfers is to fulfill the
obligations of the United States with respect to LANL under sections 91
and 94 of the Atomic Energy Community Act of 1955 (42 U.S.C. 2391,
2394). Upon completion of these conveyances and transfers, the
legislation also directs that the Secretary shall make no further
payments with respect to LANL under sections 91 or 94 of the Atomic
Energy Community Act of 1955.
The Secretary is required to undertake the preliminary
identification of parcels of land under the jurisdiction or
administrative control of the Secretary or in the vicinity of LANL for
conveyance or transfer. The criteria established in Public Law 105-119
for land to be considered as being suitable for conveyance or transfer
is that it is: (1) not required to meet the national security mission
of the DOE or will not be required for that purpose before the end of a
10-year period beginning on the date of enactment of the law; (2)
likely to be conveyable or transferable, as the case may be, not later
than the end of such period; and (3) suitable for use either for
historic, cultural, or environmental preservation purposes, for
economic diversification purposes, or for community self-sufficiency
purposes.
The Secretary of Energy has completed the preliminary
identification of such parcels of land considered to be suitable and a
report to Congress on this action was submitted in April 1998. The
report, entitled Land Transfer, A Preliminary Identification of Parcels
of Land in Los Alamos, New Mexico for Conveyance or Transfer,
summarizes, for each of nine parcels identified for potential
conveyance or transfer, the tract's location, size, boundaries,
historical DOE use, existing use, functional support of LANL's mission,
urban infrastructure present, known environmental and cultural issues
associated with the tracts, economic potential, and estimated DOE
preparation costs prior to transfer. The report includes maps of
parcels with pertinent physical features (such as roads, topography,
buildings, fences and major utility corridors). The total acreage of
the tracts being considered for transfer is about 4,646 acres (roughly
equal to about 16 percent of the DOE-controlled land in the LANL area).
About 3,000 acres are located within Santa Fe County and about 1,646
acres are located within Los Alamos County. The nine parcels identified
in the report are as follows:
1. The Technical Area (TA) 21 Tract consists of approximately 243.8
acres and is located east of the Los Alamos Townsite. This occupied
site is remote from the main LANL area. Relocation of operations and
site workers would need to take place.
2. The DP Road (North, South and West) Tract consists of 49.8
acres. It is generally undeveloped except for the West section where
the LANL Archives are currently located.
3. The DOE Los Alamos Area Office Site Tract consists of 12.9
acres. It is also within the Los Alamos Townsite
[[Page 25024]]
and is readily usable. Relocation of site employees would need to take
place.
4. The Airport Tract consists of 198 acres. Located east of the Los
Alamos Townsite, it is close to the East Gate Business park.
5. The White Rock Site Tract consists of 98.7 acres. It is
undeveloped except for utility lines and a water pump station.
6. Rendija Canyon Site Tract consists of 908.7 acres. The canyon is
undeveloped except for the shooting range that serves the local
community and is currently under lease from the DOE to the community.
7. The White Rock Y Site Tract consists of 435.1 acres. It is
undeveloped and is associated with the major transportation routes
connecting Los Alamos with northern New Mexico.
8. Two miscellaneous sites, Site 22 and The Manhattan Monument
Site, consist of 0.27 acres. Site 22 is a small, Townsite parcel
located on the edge of the mesa overlooking Los Alamos Canyon. The
Manhattan site is a small, rectangular site located within Los Alamos
County land and adjacent to Ashley Pond where most of the first
Laboratory work was conducted.
9. The TA-74 Site Tract consists of 2,698.4 acres. It is a large,
remote site located east of the Los Alamos Townsite. This parcel was
restored to the public domain by Presidential Proclamation 3539 on May
27, 1963. Because it is public domain land, additional legislative
action may be required to transfer it out of Federal government
control.
A copy of the report may be obtained from Mr. Dennis Martinez, U.S.
Department of Energy, Los Alamos Area Office, 528 35th Street, Los
Alamos, New Mexico, 87544, telephone (505) 667-6146, or E-mail at
[email protected].
The Role of the Conveyance and Transfer EIS in the DOE NEPA
Compliance Strategy
The Conveyance and Transfer EIS will be prepared pursuant to the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, (42 U.S.C. 4321 et
seq.), the Council on Environmental Quality's (CEQ) NEPA regulations
(40 CFR Parts 1500-1508), and the DOE NEPA regulations (10 CFR Part
1021). The purpose of this EIS is to provide DOE decisionmakers and
stakeholders with information on the projected environmental impacts
that would result from the proposed conveyance and transfer of certain
land tracts to the County and to the Pueblo respectively, as prescribed
by Congress in P.L. 105-119, for the following future uses: (1)
historic, cultural, or environmental preservation, (2) economic
diversification, or (3) community self-sufficiency. Specific future
land uses associated with each broad use category will be established
through consultation with the recipient parties.
The EIS will provide an analysis of any reasonable alternatives
identified through public scoping. The EIS will provide a baseline for
DOE to use as a basis of comparison for environmental effects of
proposed future changes in programs and activities, and could be a
tiering (reference) document for future NEPA analysis of agency plans,
functions, programs, and resource utilization.
Proposed Action and Alternatives
The proposed action is to convey and transfer land that is not
required to meet the national security mission of DOE or will not be
required for that purpose within the next 10 years. An alternative
under consideration is the Conveyance and Transfer of All Tracts
Alternative, which would be to convey and transfer to the County and/or
the Pueblo all of the land identified. Another alternative, the Partial
Conveyance and Transfer of Tracts Alternative, would involve the
conveyance and transfer of most of the tracts with the retention by DOE
of any land that cannot be cleaned up within the next 10 years. As
information is obtained through the analysis process, the Partial
Conveyance and Transfer of Tracts Alternative may be refined and
analyzed thoroughly or it may be eliminated from detailed analysis.
Each alternative would analyze the impacts of up to three potential
uses of land depending on information on the intended use provided by
the County and Pueblo. The following future uses could be analyzed for
each land tract: (1) historic, cultural, or environmental preservation
purposes, (2) economic diversification purposes, or (3) community self-
sufficiency purposes. Follow-on actions involving the relocation of
current tenants will be analyzed to the extent that the information is
available. As required by the CEQ NEPA regulations, a No Action
alternative will also be evaluated. The No Action alternative would be
to continue the current use of the land tracts without the conveyance
or transfer of any of the tracts to the identified parties.
Potential Issues for Analysis
Issues tentatively identified for analysis in this EIS include the
socioeconomic impacts of development of the land tracts and their
subsequent use; potential impacts to protected threatened, endangered,
or sensitive species of animal or plants, or their critical habitat;
potential impacts to cultural or historic resources; potential human
health impacts to site occupants and the general public; potential
effects on air, soil, and water quality from development and cleanup of
the subject parcels and subsequent anticipated uses; potential
irreversible and irretrievable commitment of resources, including the
ultimate loss of LANL lands and land occupied and used as a result of
conveyance and transfer actions; potential effects on members of the
public, including minority and low-income populations from the
development of the subject parcels and subsequent anticipated uses; and
cumulative environmental impacts related to past, present and future
development of the land and actions anticipated by neighboring land
managers.
Related NEPA Reviews
Following is a summary of recent NEPA documents that may be
considered in the preparation of this EIS and from which this EIS may
be tiered. The Conveyance and Transfer EIS will include relevant
information from each of these documents.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Draft Site-Wide
Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) (DOE/EIS-0238) (in preparation).
The Draft SWEIS analyzes four levels of operations alternatives for
LANL to meet its existing and potential future program assignments: the
No Action Alternative, the Expanded Operations Alternative, the Reduced
Operations Alternative, and the Greener Alternative. The SWEIS also
provides project specific analysis for two proposed projects: the
Expansion of TA-54/Area G Low Level Waste Disposal Area; and
Enhancement of Plutonium Pit Manufacturing. The SWEIS does not analyze
changing the size or configuration of the LANL reserve through land
conveyance or transfer.
The DP Road Tract EA (DOE/EA-1184) analyzed the proposed transfer
of 28 acres of land located along the south side of DP Road next to the
Los Alamos Townsite. The property is currently part of LANL's TA-21 and
has been used most recently as a vacant buffer area. Previous uses of
the tract include use of part of the tract as a mobile home park and
playground. Portions of the tract are now wooded with mixed saplings
and mature trees; the portion of the tract contiguous with DP Road is
covered with native grasses and broadleaf plants. Should this land
tract be transferred to the County, the County has indicated
[[Page 25025]]
that its preferred use of the land tract would be to develop the
property within 5 to 10 years for its own use with the construction of
a new office building to house County employees, paved parking areas,
and new warehouses, garages, and support buildings for the transfer of
the school bus yard, equipment maintenance, and school supply
warehousing activities to the site. A maximum of about 800 employees
would be expected to occupy the site. A Finding of No Significant
Impact (FONSI) was issued on January 23, 1997, although no action has
yet taken place.
The Research Park EA (DOE/EA-1212) analyzed the proposed lease of
about 60 acres of land located next to the main administration portion
of LANL, at the edges of TA-3 and TA-62. The property is currently a
combination of wooded land and land used for parking lots. This tract
is bounded in general by Diamond Drive on the east, West Jemez Road on
the south, West Road on the west, and Los Alamos Canyon on the north.
The land would be leased to the County to establish a research park.
The term of the lease is expected to be 55 years with options for
renewal depending upon final agreements between the County and DOE. The
tract of land would be developed by the County or third parties within
5 to 10 years of the date of the lease. Research parks are professional
developments that allow a wide range of companies to work within the
same geographic location and to benefit from a well-planned environment
suited to business needs. The County recommended that the type of
research park best suited for Los Alamos would include freestanding
buildings with landscaping and a possible atrium arrangement between
related structures. About 10 buildings are planned for the research
park and about 1,500 employees would be expected to occupy the site. A
FONSI was issued on October 8, 1997, although no action has yet taken
place.
Scoping Process
The scoping process is an opportunity for the public to assist the
DOE in determining the alternatives and issues for analysis. The
purpose of the scoping meetings is to receive oral and written comments
from the public. The meetings will use a format to facilitate dialogue
between DOE and the public and will be an opportunity for individuals
to provide written or oral statements. DOE welcomes specific comments
or suggestions on the content of these alternatives, or on other
alternatives that could be considered. The above list of issues to be
considered in the EIS analysis is tentative and is intended to
facilitate public comment on the scope of this EIS. It is not intended
to be all-inclusive, nor does it imply any predetermination of
potential impacts. The Conveyance and Transfer EIS will describe the
potential environmental impacts of the alternatives, using available
data where possible and obtaining additional data where necessary.
Copies of written comments and transcripts of oral comments will be
available at the following locations: Los Alamos Outreach Center, 1350
Central Avenue, Suite 101, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87544; and the
Albuquerque Technical-Vocational Institute (TVI), Montoya Campus
Library, 4700 Morris NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87111.
Issued in Washington, D.C., this 30th day of April 1998.
Peter N. Brush,
Acting Assistant Secretary Environment, Safety and Health.
[FR Doc. 98-11990 Filed 5-5-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P