[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 120 (Thursday, June 22, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35956-35957]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-9851]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 40-8903]


Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of 
No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Homestake Mining 
Company, Grants, NM

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ron Linton, Project Manager, Fuel 
Cycle Facilities Branch, Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards, 
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Telephone: (301) 415-7777; 
fax number: (301) 415-5955; e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) proposes to issue a license 
amendment for License Condition 35 (background water quality 
concentrations for ground water compliance monitoring), to Materials 
License SUA-1471, for the Homestake Mining Company (HMC), Grants, New

[[Page 35957]]

Mexico uranium mill site. The purpose of this amendment is to revise 
several current ground water protection standards based on a more 
extensive data set (temporal and spacial) of background water quality 
in the upper most (alluvial) aquifer. In addition, this amendment will 
include establishing new ground water protection standards for several 
constituents in the alluvial aquifer; the Upper, Middle, and Lower 
Chinle non-mixing zones; and the Chinle mixing zone. Presently, three 
alluvial aquifer monitor wells have been designated as point of 
compliance wells for existing ground water protection standards. 
Designation of additional point of compliance wells for the alluvial 
aquifer and the Chinle non-mixing and mixing zones will be addressed in 
a revised Corrective Action Plan, to be submitted by HMC no later than 
December 31, 2006. NRC has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) in 
support of this amendment in accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR 
part 51. Based on the EA, the NRC has concluded that a Finding of No 
Significant Impact (FONSI) is appropriate. The amendment will be issued 
following the publication of this Notice.

II. EA Summary

    The staff has prepared the EA in support of the proposed license 
amendment. Since this action relates to ground water, the primary focus 
of the evaluation of potential environmental impacts relates to ground 
water. For several of the constituents of interest, including uranium 
and selenium, the proposed ground water quality standards are higher 
than the existing standards. With respect to uranium and selenium, both 
the current and proposed ground water protection standards exceed their 
respective Safe Drinking Water Act maximum contaminant levels; 
therefore, post-restoration treatment to meet Federal potable water 
quality limits will be necessary. Since the proposed standards are 
higher, the cost of post-restoration treatment to meet Federal water 
quality limits under the proposed amendment may be higher. However, it 
is recognized that the proposed ground water quality standards 
represent the ambient (background) chemical quality of the ground water 
flowing into (and eventually downgradient) of the mill site from 
upgradient areas and these higher background levels are not related to 
milling activities. In addition, staff has concluded that there would 
be no effect to the following resources: visual resources, vegetation 
and soils, ambient air quality, and transportation. Staff has also 
determined that the proposed action is not the type of activity that 
has the potential to cause effects on cultural or historic resources.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

    On the basis of the EA, NRC has concluded that there are no 
significant environmental impacts from the proposed amendment and has 
determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement.

IV. Further Information

    Documents related to this action, including the application for 
amendment and supporting documentation, are available electronically at 
the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, you can access the NRC's Agencywide 
Document Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and 
image files of NRC's public documents. The ADAMS accession numbers for 
the documents related to this notice are as follows:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                           ADAMS  Accession
                 Document                         No.            Date
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Environmental Restoration Group            ML020080071.....     12/31/01
 Statistical Evaluation of Alluvial        ML020080076.....
 Ground Water Quality Upgradient of the    ML020080104.....
 Homestake Site Near Grants, New Mexico.   ML020350348.....
Environmental Restoration Group            ML033140226.....     10/31/03
 Statistical Evaluation of the Chinle
 Aquifer Quality at Homestake Site Near
 Grants, New Mexico.
Homestake Mining Company and Hydro-        ML033140212.....     10/31/03
 Engineering Background Water Quality      ML033140215.....
 Evaluation of Chinle Aquifers.            ML033140218.....
                                           ML033140223.....
                                           ML033160201.....
                                           ML033160203.....
                                           ML033160207.....
                                           ML033160213.....
Homestake Mining Company--HMC's response   ML060790062.....       6/9/05
 to New Mexico Environment Department
 Comments.
Homestake Mining Company--Revised Ground   ML060250273.....      1/19/06
 Water Protection Standards.
NRC's EA for Homestake's Proposed          ML061450327.....      6/06/06
 Revisions to Ground Water Protection
 Standards.
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    If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in 
accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC's Public 
Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or 
by e-mail to [email protected].
    These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public 
computers located at the NRC's PDR, O1 F21, One White Flint North, 
11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR reproduction 
contractor will copy documents for a fee.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 16th day of June, 2006.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Ron Linton,
Project Manager, Fuel Cycle Facilities Branch, Division of Fuel Cycle 
Safety and Safeguards, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and 
Safeguards.
[FR Doc. E6-9851 Filed 6-21-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P