Idaho National Laboratory Cultural Resource Management Plan

Responsibility for Resource
Management
Comprehensive planning is especially
important for DOE because the agency manages
large amounts of land distributed over a broad and
diverse geographic area. The wealth of cultural
resources potentially impacted by activities on
DOE lands is also diverse and region specific.
Because of the wide variety of its holdings,
DOE-HQ has delegated primary responsibility for
cultural resource management to local DOE field
offices. DOE operations office managers, field
office managers, and lead program secretarial
officers assume primary responsibility for
implementing cultural resource policies. At INL,
the Environmental Technical Support Division of
DOE-ID takes responsibility for oversight of the
INL CRM Program through a designated cultural
resources coordinator. The INL CRM Office,
which is operated by DOE-ID’s M&O contractor,
is responsible for day-to-day cultural resource
management at INL and implementation of this
Plan. This office is staffed with professional
archaeologists, preservationists, anthropologists,
and historians who meet Secretary-of-Interior
qualification standards.
Cultural resource concerns and responsibilities
are also integrated into broader DOE objectives
through a Cultural Resource Management
Program based at DOE-HQ. The DOE director of
the Office of Health, Safety, and Security; the
director of the Office of Management and
Administration; the designated federal
preservation officer (Chief Historian, DOE Office
of History); and the Assistant Secretary for
Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs are
responsible for developing and coordinating
cultural resource management and historic
preservation policy and guidance with broad DOE
impact.
Primary Activities of the INL
Cultural Resource Management
Office
Federal law directs that cultural resources be
considered and protected if possible during daily
operations and project planning and
implementation on INL. The most effective
protective measures are “active” and include
resource inventories, National Register
nominations, site monitoring, scientific research,
and public education. “Reactive” measures are
also taken to protect resources. This includes
activities such as site avoidance during ground
disturbance, archaeological investigations to
mitigate adverse impacts, preparation of Historic
American Engineering Record documentation, and
a variety of other activities outlined in Appendices
C and D.
The INL CRM Office coordinates cultural
resource-related activities at INL with oversight by
the DOE-ID cultural resources coordinator. The
activities of the INL CRM Office—set forth by
law, regulation, and guidance—fall into three very
broad cultural resource management categories:
(1) identification, (2) evaluation, and
(3) protection. The staff is also dedicated to sound
overall management and resource protection or
enhancement, and elements of these objectives
infuse all INL cultural resource management
efforts.
The overall mission of the INL CRM Office,
as outlined in this plan, is to provide a professional
approach to managing the cultural resources under
DOE-ID’s jurisdiction in coordination with and
support of current and emerging Laboratory
missions and programs.
As such, INL cultural resources are managed
in such a manner as to:
Promote appreciation and awareness of the
value and sensitivity of cultural resources on
INL
Encourage management accountability for
INL cultural resources
Achieve compliance with the spirit and intent
of applicable executive and legislative
mandates
Foster innovative and cost-effective methods
for taking cultural resources into early and
careful consideration during INL undertakings
in harmony with the overall DOE mission.
36