Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

Chapter 3. Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences
In addition, the TMR provided for the prohibition of unrestricted motorized cross-country travel
and limited cross-country motorized vehicular use to designated areas. There is only one such
area within the Mt. Taylor Ranger District and it is located in the Zuni Mountains, far removed
from the vicinity of the Roca Honda Mine site (Baker, 2011b).
New Mexico State Lands
The current surface land use for State owned Section 16 is grazing (Lease GM-1352). There is
also a power line right-of-way (RW-18717) of 5.98 acres in the northern half of the section issued
to Continental Divide Electric Coop. Current grazing land use would be able to coexist with the
mining operation inasmuch as the commissioner would most likely withdraw the mineral
operation acreage from the grazing lease (Norwick, 2012).
Tribal Lands
Nearby American Indian reservations include lands of the Acoma Pueblo, Laguna Pueblo, Zuni,
Navajo, Ramah Navajo, and Hopi Tribes (USNRC, 2010). Historically, Forest Service lands
including the project site have been used for traditional cultural and religious activities by these
tribes and others (for a more detailed discussion see the “Cultural Resources” section). Mt. Taylor
in particular is a sacred place of veneration to all of the tribes in this part of New Mexico and is
frequently visited by tribal members.
Private and Other Lands
Although sparsely populated, the region surrounding the project has three fairly large population
centers: Gallup, with more than 21,000 people; Grants, with approximately 9,200 people; and
Zuni Pueblo, with about 6,300 people. Smaller communities are scattered along the Interstate 40
corridor. Generally, private, Federal, and tribal lands in this region are rural, mainly undeveloped,
sparsely populated, and mostly used for livestock grazing and to a lesser extent for timber and
agricultural production. In McKinley County, for example, more than 85 percent of the land is
used for agricultural purposes and 83 percent of that land is used for livestock grazing. Only 9
percent and 0.6 percent of the land is used for timber production and for dry and irrigated crop
production, respectively. Coal and uranium milling activities use less than 1 percent of the land in
McKinley County (USNRC, 2010).
Environmental Consequences
As described in chapter 2, mining activity at the Roca Honda Mine will include the major phases
of mine development, mine operation, and mine reclamation. The following evaluation and
discussion of environmental consequences for land use considers the full range of these major
phases. In many cases the environmental consequences are the same or similar for all or nearly all
of these major phases, but where important differences between phases are present, the discussion
will specifically reference these differences between phases.
Table 40 shows the resource-specific criteria and definitions for land use that are used as impact
criteria for of the three alternatives. The basis for describing the overall significance of the impact
to the resource may be seen in the “Methodology” section at the beginning of chapter 3.
250 DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest