[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 23 (Monday, February 4, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5089-5091]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-2700]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


National Nuclear Security Administration; Notice of Intent To 
Prepare a Sitewide Environmental Assessment for Sandia National 
Laboratories, California

AGENCY: Office of Kirtland Site Operations, National Nuclear Security 
Administration, Department of Energy.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security 
Administration (NNSA), Office of Kirtland Site Operations (OKSO), 
announces its intent to prepare a Site-Wide Environmental Assessment 
(SWEA) for its Sandia National Laboratories/California (SNL/CA), a DOE 
research and development laboratory located east of Livermore, 
California. The SWEA will address operations and activities that DOE 
foresees at SNL/CA for approximately the next 5 to 10 years. The 
purpose of this Notice of Intent (Notice) is to invite public 
participation in the SWEA scoping process and to encourage public 
dialogue on alternatives that should be considered.

DATES: The public scoping period starts with the publication of this 
Notice in the Federal Register and will continue until March 6, 2002. 
Public scoping meetings are scheduled to be held February 20, 2002.

ADDRESSES: Public scoping meetings are scheduled to be held as follows: 
February 20, 2002, 1 p.m.-4 p.m. and 6 p.m.-9 p.m., at Lawrence 
Livermore National Laboratory, Visitors Center Auditorium (T-6525) at 
the Eastgate entrance from Grennville Road.
    The purpose of these 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 provide an opportunity for 
individuals to provide written or oral statements. The DOE will publish 
additional notices on the date, times, and location of the scoping 
meeting in local newspapers in advance of the scheduled meeting. Any 
necessary changes will be announced in the local media. In addition to 
providing oral comments at the public scoping meetings, all interested 
parties are invited to record their comments, ask questions concerning 
the SNL/CA SWEA, or request to be placed on the SNL/CA SWEA mailing or 
document distribution list.
    The DOE invites other Federal agencies, Native American tribes, 
State and local governments, and the general public to comment on the 
scope of this SWEA. DOE will consider all comments received or 
postmarked by that date in defining the scope of this SWEA. Comments 
received or postmarked after that date will be considered to the extent 
practicable.
    Written comments or suggestions concerning the scope of the SNL/CA 
SWEA should be directed to: Ms. Susan D. Lacy, U.S. Department of 
Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Office of Kirtland 
Site Operations, P.O. Box 5400, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185-5400, by 
facsimile at (505) 845-4710, or email at [email protected]. Please mark 
envelopes, faxes, and email: ``Sandia National Laboratories, California 
Site-Wide Environmental Assessment Comments.'' For express delivery 
services, the appropriate address is Pennsylvania and H Streets, 
Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, NM 87116.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Susan Lacy at the address and 
facsimile number listed above.
    For Information On DOE's NEPA Process Contact: Ms. Carol Borgstrom, 
Director, Office of NEPA Policy and Assistance (EH-42), U.S. Department 
of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20585.
    Ms. Borgstrom can be reached at (202) 586-4600, by facsimile at 
(202) 586-7031.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Copies of all written comments and 
transcripts of all oral comments will be available at the following 
location:

Sandia National Laboratories, California, 7011 East Avenue, Visitor 
Entrance, Building 911 Lobby, Livermore, Califorina.

and

Livermore Public Library, 1000 South Livermore Avenue, Livermore, 
California.

[[Page 5090]]

SNL/CA's Mission

    Sandia Corporation is a prime contractor to the Department of 
Energy (DOE). Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed 
Martin Corporation, manages and operates Sandia National Laboratories 
(SNL), with principal facilities in Albuquerque, NM; Livermore, CA; 
Tonopah, NV; and Kauai, HI. As one of the United States' multipurpose 
national laboratories, SNL develops solutions to a wide range of 
problems facing the country. SNL's mission includes advanced military 
technology, energy and environmental research, arms control/
nonproliferation, and advanced manufacturing technology. Operations at 
SNL's California facility in Livermore comprise four broad areas:
    Vital Role in Weapons: This program involves work in support of our 
nation's nuclear weapons program. These activities include weapon 
systems, weapon components/subsystems (gas transfer, use control, and 
instrumentation), reliability assessments, engineering sciences, 
advanced computing/networking, and supporting research.
    Integrated Systems and Technologies: This program applies strong 
systems engineering practices and selected Sandia technologies to 
providing solutions for evolving national security needs, as well as to 
contributing to our nation's economic competitiveness. Work includes 
detection, nonproliferation, and demilitarization of weapons of mass 
destruction; development of secure, distributed information systems; 
applied research and development on combustion systems and other 
energy-intensive industrial processes; and advances in microsystems and 
micro-fabrication. Partnering with industry is an important and 
integral aspect of many of these activities.
    Strong Research Base: This program performs world-class science in 
key competencies such as materials and engineering sciences, chemical 
sciences, information sciences, and an emerging competency in 
biological sciences. The work builds on both modeling and 
experimentation to provide linkages to global science and to ensure a 
seamless transition to many applications within the Laboratories 
Weapons, and Integrated Systems and Technologies roles.
    Exemplary Operations: This program partners with the three business 
areas described above to ensure an infrastructure that provides a 
competitive advantage in implementing the site strategy. Most of the 
site's support and operations services are included in this business 
area. The site operates under the scope of Federal, State, and local 
regulatory authorities and has obtained all applicable operating 
permits.
    SNL/CA has an annual budget of approximately $130 million and 
employs approximately 1,080 people. It occupies 410 acres in Alameda 
County California adjacent to the City of Livermore.
    In addition to SNL/CA, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a 
DOE/NNSA Laboratory, is located in close proximity to SNL/CA. The 
environmental impacts of operations at both the DOE/NNSA laboratories 
will be included in the discussion of cumulative impacts in the SWEA. 
DOE welcomes comments on this approach.

Role of the SWEA in the DOE NEPA Compliance Strategy

    The SWEA 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 NEPA regulations (40 CFR parts 1500-1508) and 
the DOE NEPA regulations (10 CFR Part 1021). The DOE has a policy (10 
CFR 1021.330) to prepare site-wide documents for certain large, 
multiple-facility sites, such as SNL/CA. The purpose of a SWEA is to 
provide DOE and its stakeholders with an analysis of the environmental 
impacts caused by ongoing and reasonably foreseeable new operations and 
facilities and reasonable alternatives at a DOE site, to provide a 
basis for site-wide decision making, and to improve and coordinate 
agency plans, functions, programs, and resource utilization. The SWEA 
provides an overall NEPA baseline so that the environmental effects of 
proposed future changes in programs and activities can be compared with 
the baseline. A SWEA also enables DOE to ``tier'' its NEPA documents at 
a site to eliminate repetitive discussion of the same issues in future 
project-specific NEPA studies, and to focus on the actual issues ready 
for decisions at each level of environmental review. The NEPA process 
allows for Federal, Native American, state and local government, and 
public participation in the environmental review process. The Final 
Environmental Impact Statement and Environmental Impact Report for 
Continued Operation of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and 
Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore [DOE/EIS-0157], August 1992, is 
the existing site-wide environmental document for SNL/CA.

Related NEPA Reviews

    The following is a list of recent NEPA documentation that affects 
the scope of this SWEA. The summaries below are intended to familiarize 
the reader with the purpose of these other NEPA reviews and how SNL/CA 
is considered in them.

Programmatic NEPA Reviews

    The Waste Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement 
(PEIS) (DOE/EIS-0200) analyzes the DOE plan to formulate and implement 
a national integrated waste management program. The Final PEIS was 
published in May 1997. The Nonnuclear Consolidation Environmental 
Assessment [DOE/EA-0792] was published in June, 1993. A Finding of No 
Significant Impact on the Consolidation of the Nonnuclear Component 
within the Nuclear Weapons Complex was signed on September 8, 1993. The 
Stockpile Stewardship and Management PEIS was published in 1996 [DOE/
EIS-0236] and a Record of Decision (ROD) was signed by the Secretary of 
Energy on December 19, 1996. Inherent in the many decisions made in the 
ROD was to continue the operations of the three national weapons 
laboratories, SNL being one of the three. The ROD emphasized stockpile 
stewardship as an essential program to maintain the safety and 
reliability of the stockpile in the absence of underground nuclear 
testing, therefore requiring enhanced experimental capabilities in the 
future at the three national weapons laboratories.

Preliminary Alternatives

    The scoping process is an opportunity for the public to assist the 
DOE in determining the alternatives and issues for analysis in the 
SWEA. DOE welcomes specific comments or suggestions on the content of 
the proposed preliminary alternatives, or on other alternatives that 
could be considered. DOE is proposing to continue current operations at 
SNL/CA. Two preliminary alternatives were identified during internal 
scoping: the No Action alternative and the Expanded Operations 
alternative. DOE also considered a Reduced Operations alternative. 
However, current activities at SNL/CA are at the minimum level of 
operations needed to protect the technical capability and competency to 
support the site's assigned missions. Therefore, the Department plans 
to include the Reduced Operations alternative in the SWEA as an 
alternative considered but eliminated from further analysis.

[[Page 5091]]

    No Action. NEPA regulations require analysis of the No Action 
alternative to provide a benchmark for comparison with environmental 
effects of the other alternatives. The No Action alternative would 
continue current facility operations throughout SNL/CA in support of 
assigned missions, and for this SWEA, it is also the proposed action. 
With respect to the Defense Programs mission, the future role of SNL 
was defined at the programmatic level by the Stockpile Stewardship and 
Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (SSM PEIS) 
Record of Decision (ROD) (61 FR 68014) (December 26, 1996).
    Expanded Operations. This alternative would reflect an increase in 
facility operations to the highest levels that can be supported by 
current facilities. This could require construction projects to address 
safety, security and environmental compliance as well as to support 
reconfiguration of facility equipment and operations to optimize use of 
current facilities' capabilities. This alternative will set the 
bounding conditions for assessing the environmental impacts.

Preliminary Issues Identified by Internal Scoping

    The issues listed below have been identified for analysis in this 
SWEA as being applicable to the operation of SNL/CA. The list is 
tentative and is intended to facilitate public comment on the scope of 
this SWEA. It is not intended to be all-inclusive, nor does it imply 
any predetermination of potential impacts. The SWEA will describe the 
potential environmental impacts of the alternatives, using available 
data where possible and obtaining additional data where necessary. In 
accordance with the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations (40 
CFR 1500.4 and 1502.21), other documents, as appropriate, may be 
incorporated into the impacts analyses by reference, in whole or in 
part. DOE specifically welcomes suggestions and comments for the 
addition or deletion of items on the following list of potential 
effects:
    --Potential effects on the public and workers from exposures to 
radiological and hazardous materials during normal operations and from 
reasonably postulated accidents;
    --Potential effects on air and groundwater quality from normal 
operations and potential accidents;
    --Potential cumulative effects of past, present, and future 
operations at SNL/CA (this SWEA will include effects of current and 
reasonably foreseeable federal actions including Lawrence Livermore 
National Laboratory);
    --Effects on waste management practices and activities, including 
pollution prevention, waste minimization, and waste stream 
characterization; and
    --Potential impacts of noise levels to the ambient environment and 
sensitive receptors.

Classified Material

    DOE will review classified material while preparing this SWEA. 
Within the limits of classification, DOE will provide to the public as 
much information as possible. Any classified material required to 
explain the purpose and need for action, or the uses, materials, or 
impacts analyzed in this SWEA, will be segregated into a classified 
appendix or supplement.

    Issued in Albuquerque, New Mexico on January 29, 2002.
Michael J. Zamorski,
Director, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Kirtland Site 
Operations.
[FR Doc. 02-2700 Filed 2-1-02; 8:45 am]
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