[Federal Register: August 17, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 158)]
[Notices]
[Page 48378-48380]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr17au05-55]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Conveyance and Transfer of Certain Land Tracts Administered by
the Department of Energy and Located at Los Alamos National Laboratory,
Los Alamos and Santa Fe Counties, NM
AGENCY: Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration
ACTION: Amended record of decision.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security
Administration (DOE/NNSA) is amending the Record of Decision (ROD) for
the Environmental Impact Statement for the Conveyance and Transfer of
Certain Land Tracts Administered by the Department of Energy and
Located at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos and Santa Fe
Counties, New Mexico, DOE/EIS-0293 (Conveyance and Transfer EIS) to
reflect changes in the need to retain a certain portion of a land tract
withheld earlier due to potential national security mission
requirements for a health and safety buffer area relating to on-going
operations. Specifically, DOE/NNSA has reassessed its need for a
certain portion of a tract to serve as a health and safety buffer area
for current and post-operations cleanup of its tritium-related
activities at Los Alamos National Laboratory's (LANL's) Technical Area
21 (TA-21). DOE/NNSA no longer needs to retain a 32.3-acre portion of
the Airport Tract located along the south side of State Road 502 for
this purpose.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information concerning the
conveyance or transfer of land tracts or this amended ROD, contact:
Elizabeth Withers, NEPA Compliance Officer, Los Alamos Site Office,
National Nuclear Security Administration, 528 35th Street, Los Alamos,
NM 87004 Telephone (505) 667-8690.
For further information concerning DOE's National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA) process, contact: Ms. Carol Borgstrom, Director,
Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance (EH-42), U.S. Department of
Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585, Telephone
(202) 586-4600, or leave a message at 1-800-472-2756.
Additional information regarding the DOE NEPA process and
activities is also available on the Internet through the NEPA home page
at http://www.eh.doe.gov/nepa. Copies of the Conveyance and Transfer
EIS and the 2000 ROD are also available on the NEPA Web site, along
with this and one other amended RODs (discussed in later paragraphs).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
A. Legal Requirements for Action
LANL is one of several national security laboratories that support
DOE's and NNSA's responsibilities for national security, energy
resources, environmental quality, and science. Located in north-central
New Mexico, LANL is about 60 miles (97 kilometers) north-northeast of
Albuquerque, and about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Santa Fe.
The small communities of Los Alamos townsite, White Rock, Pajarito
Acres, the Royal Crest Mobile Home Park, and San Ildefonso Pueblo are
located in the immediate vicinity of LANL. LANL occupies an area of
approximately 25,600 acres (10,360 hectares), or approximately 40
square miles (104 square kilometers). DOE also has administrative
control over other properties and land within Los Alamos County that
total about 915 acres (371 hectares).
On November 26, 1997, Congress passed Public Law 105-119, the
Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act, Fiscal Year 1998 (``the Act''). Section
632 of the Act (42 U.S.C. 2391) directs the Secretary of Energy (the
Secretary) to convey to the Incorporated County of Los Alamos, New
Mexico, or to the designee of the County, and transfer to the
Department of the Interior, in trust for the San Ildefonso Pueblo,
parcels of land under the jurisdictional administrative control of the
Secretary at or in the vicinity of LANL. Such parcels, or tracts, of
land must meet suitability criteria established by the Act. The purpose
of the conveyances and transfers is to fulfill the obligations of the
United States with respect to Los Alamos, New Mexico, under sections 91
and 94 of the Atomic Energy Community Act of 1955 (AECA) (42 U.S.C.
2391, 2394). Upon the completion of the conveyance or transfer, the
Secretary of Energy shall make no further financial assistance payments
with respect to LANL under the AECA.
The Act sets forth the criteria, processes, and dates by which the
tracts will be selected, titles to the tracts reviewed, environmental
issues evaluated, and decisions made as to the allocation of the tracts
between the two recipients. DOE's responsibilities under the Act
include identifying potentially suitable tracts of land according to
criteria set forth in the law (Land Transfer Report, April 1998);
conducting a title search on each tract of land (Title Report,
September 1998); identifying any environmental restoration and
remediation that would be needed for each tract of land (Environmental
Restoration Report, August 1999); conducting National Environmental
Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) review of the proposed conveyance or transfer
of the land tracts (the Conveyance and Transfer EIS, October 1999,
distributed in January 2000); reporting to Congress on the results of
the Environmental Restoration Report review and the final Conveyance
and Transfer EIS (Combined Data Report, January 2000); and preparing a
plan for conveying or transferring land according to the allocation
agreement of parcels for Congress (Conveyance and Transfer Plan, April
2000). The Act further states that the Secretary must, to the maximum
extent practicable, conduct any needed environmental restoration or
remediation activities within 10 years of enactment (by
[[Page 48379]]
November 26, 2007), and convey and transfer the tracts meeting the
suitability criteria. Under the Act, DOE neither had a role in the
designation of recipients, nor in how the parcels of land were to be
allocated between the recipients. As specified in PL 105-119, the
actual disposition of each tract, or portion of a tract, would be
subject to DOE's need for the individual tract, or a portion of the
tract, to meet a national security mission support function, which
could range from either direct or indirect activity involvement.
Additionally, the disposition of each tract, or portion of a tract,
would be subject to DOE's completion of any necessary environmental
restoration or remediation required.
B. Previous Decision on the Conveyance and Transfer Actions
In the 2000 ROD for the Conveyance and Transfer EIS (65 Federal
Register (FR), Number 54, Page 14952, March 20, 2000), DOE stated its
decision to convey and transfer each of the ten subject tracts, either
in whole or in part, by November 26, 2007. DOE's decision, consistent
with the Preferred Alternative analyzed in the Conveyance and Transfer
EIS, was to convey or transfer seven tracts in whole and three tracts
(the Airport, TA-21 and White Rock Y Tracts) in part. Portions of the
three partial tracts were not conveyed or transferred by DOE because of
potential national security mission needs for retaining security,
health, and safety buffer zones surrounding operational areas
identified by DOE prior to the issuance of the ROD. While the
suitability criteria were considered in the formulation of the
Preferred Alternative, the national security mission support criteria
led DOE to the recognition that portions of the these tracts may not be
available for conveyance or transfer within the 10-year period
specified by PL 105-119. DOE's decision at that time was to convey or
transfer 110 acres of the Airport Tract, 20 acres of the TA-21 Tract,
and 125 acres of the White Rock Y Tract. DOE stated in the ROD that it
would make every effort to minimize the portions of the tracts it
retains and only retain essential areas and convey or transfer the
remainder of the tracts before the 2007 deadline.
On June 26, 2002, NNSA issued an Amended ROD [67 FR 45495; July 9,
2002 (No. 131)] that announced NNSA's determination that an 8-acre
portion of the Airport Tract at its western end that had been retained
to serve as a health and safety buffer zone was no longer required for
that purpose and could be conveyed. NNSA additionally identified that
two portions of the White Rock Y Tract containing stretches of public
roadways along State Road 502 and State Road 4 totaling about 74 acres
that were unlikely to be needed to serve as health and safety buffers
and could be conveyed as well.
The Airport Tract originally consisted of about 205 acres (83
hectares). Located east of the Los Alamos townsite, it is close to the
East Gate Business Park. The Los Alamos Airport is located on part of
the tract, while other portions of the tract are undeveloped. NNSA
currently retains about 87 acres of land within the original Airport
Tract under its administrative control.
The TA-21 Tract originally consisted of about 260 acres (105
hectares). This tract is located at the eastern end of DP Mesa between
DP and Los Alamos Canyons close to the business district of the Los
Alamos townsite. LANL's TA-21 is one of the oldest technical areas at
LANL; it is the site of the former plutonium processing facility and
the current location of the Tritium Science and Fabrication Facility
(TSFF). The Tritium Systems Test Assembly (TSTA) operations were
located at TA-21 until about a year ago when these operations ceased.
The NNSA currently retains about 240 acres of this tract under its
administrative control.
The White Rock Y Tract originally consisted of about 540 acres (219
hectares). It is undeveloped and portions of the tract are associated
with the major transportation routes connecting Los Alamos with
northern New Mexico. The NNSA currently retains about 341 acres of this
tract under its administrative control.
II. Need To Change the Conveyance and Transfer Portions of a Retained
Tract
The original 2000 ROD for the Conveyance and Transfer EIS stated
that for the tracts that were conveyed in part, DOE would continue to
resolve outstanding national security mission support issues on the
remaining portions of the tracts so that conveyance or transfer of
those portions could occur before the end of the 2007 deadline stated
in the Act. DOE could include deed restrictions, notices, and similar
land use controls as deemed appropriate and necessary that are
protective of human health and safety to facilitate the transfer of the
remaining portions of tracts.
A. Need for Existing Facilities at TA-21
In 2000, TA-21 Tract housed both the Tritium Systems Test Assembly
(TSTA) and the Tritium Sciences and Fabrication Facility (TSFF), and
both of these facilities were scheduled to continue operation past the
year 2007. These two research facilities were identified as being
needed for the national security mission and there were no formal plans
to relocate them at that time. However, DOE was even then in the early
stages of assessing the feasibility of relocating these operations to
another facility within LANL. Over the past four years, NNSA has
reviewed both its long-term continued need for the TSTA facility and
the feasibility of relocating the TSFF tritium operations away from TA-
21 to other tritium operations facilities at LANL. NNSA concluded in
2002 that the operation of the TSTA was not needed in the long term and
the facility has since been discontinued. The TSFF is planed for
relocation to another LANL site. The nuclear material inventory of the
TA-21 facilities has been reduced according to these changes in site
operations. The discontinuance of the TSTA facility operations and
removal of the TSFF facility operations, together with removal of TA-21
offices and assorted storage support facilities, would allow the
facility and all of TA-21 to be completely decommissioned,
decontaminated and demolished. It is unlikely, however, that all three
of these steps in the dismantling of the technical area could occur
before 2007. In the near term, however, NNSA has determined that about
an additional 32.3-acre portion of the Airport Tract situated along the
south side of State Road 502 on the Townsite Mesa top (and to the north
of TA21) that had been retained for the purpose of serving as a health
and safety buffer for the TA-21 TSTA and TSFF operations is no longer
required for that purpose. This partial tract (referred to as A-5-1)
can now be conveyed. This will leave about 55 acres of land within the
Airport Tract under the administrative control of the NNSA.
III. Amended Decision
NNSA is modifying its decision on conveyance and transfer of
certain land tracts at LANL as stated in the following paragraph.
Should NNSA no longer need portions of these and other tracts for
national security mission support needs, NNSA will again reassess the
retainment of partial tract areas and amend the Record of Decision, as
needed.
The Airport Tract currently consists of about 87 acres (35
hectares), east of the Los Alamos townsite and near the East Gate
Business Park. The Los Alamos Airport is located on the northern part
of the tract, while other portions of the tract are undeveloped.
Portions of the Airport Tract will continue to be needed to serve as
health
[[Page 48380]]
and safety buffer areas for the tritium activities while they continue
within TA-21. In March 2000, DOE decided to convey or transfer part of
the tract, approximately 110 acres North of East Road. With the planned
shutdown of portions of its tritium activities at TA-21, NNSA conveyed
an additional 8-acre portion of the Airport Tract in 2002. NNSA will
now convey a 32.3-acre portion of the Airport Tract located along the
south side of State Road 502 that is on top of Townsite Mesa.
Issued in Washington, DC, July 28, 2005.
Linton F. Brooks,
Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration.
[FR Doc. 05-16276 Filed 8-16-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P