Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

Chapter 3. Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences
operation, the movement of humans and machinery, and the noise generated by heavy equipment,
trucks, and explosives within the permit area and along transportation routes would be expected
to disturb wildlife to some extent across an area somewhat greater than these 180 acres.
However, both the piñon-juniper habitat and desert grassland habitats are widespread in the
landscape surrounding the permit area, and the cumulative effect of an additional 180 acres would
not be significant, as noted above under the “Vegetation” section. The 180 acres of disturbed
vegetation would be reclaimed at the close of active mining operations. Impacts to wildlife from
the mine would last until the mining operation ends and reclamation of the disturbed areas is
complete, that is until they are restored with vegetation, which would occur over the ensuing
years and decades.
No known activities are proposed for the proposed project area that would contribute to wildlife
impacts to Mt. Taylor as a whole except for the La Jara Mesa uranium mine, proposed for the
other side of Mt. Taylor.
Both the proposed action (alternative 2) and one shaft alternative (alternative 3), in combination
with past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions that may result in increased impacts
to wildlife habitat and wildlife populations, would not create significant cumulative impacts to
wildlife species. Therefore, no significant cumulative impacts are expected to occur to wildlife
species.
Cumulative effects on special status species (State listed threatened and endangered, Forest
Service sensitive species, MIS, and high priority migratory birds) would be broadly similar to
those for wildlife in general because of the dependence of all wildlife on habitat. However, the
fact that certain species such as those described above are listed as sensitive, threatened, or
endangered in the first place is a clear sign that all combined human activities over long periods
of time have had a greater cumulative impact on their well-being than on wildlife in general.
The cumulative impact on special status species of all these reasonably foreseeable actions would
likely be minor to moderately adverse but not significant.
Land Use
Affected Environment
The Roca Honda project area lies within the Navajo section of the Colorado Plateau. Past, current
and potential uranium milling operations in the area are found in two locations: (1) the central
western part of McKinley County, east of Gallup, New Mexico and (2) the southeastern part of
McKinley County where the Roca Honda project is located and the northern part of Cibola
County, east and northeast of Grants, New Mexico. These two areas are parts of the Grants
Uranium District, an area rich in mineral deposits where a number of uranium sites exist, once
existed, or are planned (USNRC, 2010).
The project site lies primarily within Sections 9, 10, and 16, Township 13 North, Range 8 West.
Sections 9 and 10 are U.S. Forest Service land and Section 16 is State of New Mexico land. The
U.S. Forest Service land is designated as the Mt. Taylor Ranger District, one of four ranger
districts in the Cibola National Forest. The Cibola National Forest and surrounding land uses are
shown on figure 56. The 1,618,459-acre forest generally surrounds the Albuquerque metropolitan
246 DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest