[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 126 (Friday, June 29, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34624-34625]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-16451]


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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: [email protected] 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]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P