Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Roca Honda Mine

Chapter 3. Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences
Site No.
Project
Section
Land Status
Criteria for
Eligibility
Source/Project Facility
160744 NA private D Construction of dewatering discharge
pipeline and storage tank.
162763 16 NMSLO D Stock piles, haul road, and reclamation
activities
165884 20 private D Construction of haul road.
Cumulative Effects
Both action alternatives are expected to result in adverse effects to historic properties, including
the Mt. Taylor TCP, and significant impacts to other important cultural resources and to
traditional cultural practices. These impacts and effects would include physical damage to the
resources, and damage to physical features within the setting of the resources, resulting from
activities conducted during construction, operations, and reclamation phases. The introduction of
visual and audible elements out of character with the resources would also impact the resources.
These impacts would derive from the surface activities conducted during all three phases, from
the presence of modern facilities in the rural environment, and from the changes to the natural
landscape. Traditional cultural practices would be affected due to physical disturbance of the
cultural and natural resources in the project area during construction, operation, and reclamation.
Impacts to practices would also occur from extraction of ore, dewatering, and the surface
activities being conducted. These overall impacts would be significant, and either action
alternative would result in an adverse effect to historic properties.
In compliance with Section 106 of the NHPA, the Forest Service would develop a programmatic
agreement in consultation with the ACHP and the consulting parties. This programmatic
agreement would define measures to be implemented to avoid, minimize, and mitigate adverse
effects to historic properties, and to address impacts to other cultural resources and practices.
While the adverse effects would remain, the mitigation measures would resolve these effects per
36 CFR Part 800. However, the impact to cultural resources overall and traditional cultural
practices would remain significant.
Past, present, and reasonably foreseeable projects within the Mt. Taylor area are described in
chapter 2. Some of these projects are those that are proposed and conducted by the Forest Service
to maintain the health of the forest and its resources, and facilitate use and enjoyment of the forest
by the public. These projects, which occur periodically throughout the forest, include wildlife
habitat improvements, wildland fire management, improvements for livestock grazing,
maintenance of recreational facilities such as trails, picnic areas, and campgrounds, and
maintenance of roads. Other projects are conducted by non-Agency project proponents, and
include timber harvesting and maintenance of utility corridors and communications sites. Due to
the type and scale of these projects, and the review conducted by the Forest Service prior to
initiating them, these projects are designed to minimize the potential for impacts to cultural
resources, per the land and resource management plan (USFS, 1985). All such projects undergo
review through the Section 106 compliance process and efforts are made to avoid or minimize
potential effects. As such, these projects usually result in minor or no impacts to cultural
resources. General activities conducted by the public on Forest Service lands include firewood
358 DEIS for Roca Honda Mine, Cibola National Forest