xs7hy9e06w?redirect_to=http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wo/blm_library/tech_notes.Par.29872.File.dat/TN_444

Recommendations

Info

2.4 Mitigation Strategy (Hierarchy) of the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone 2.4.1 Avoidance 2.4.1.1 Dry Wash/Riparian Areas In the Final Solar PEIS and the Solar PEIS ROD, 469 acres (1.9 km 2 ) of floodplain and wetland within the SEZ boundaries were identified as nondevelopment areas. Avoidance of these areas will eliminate or largely reduce adverse impacts to them. 2.4.1.2 Existing Rights-of-Way, Mining Claims, etc. As stated in Section 2.2.1, the BLM has revised the developable and nondevelopable portions of the SEZ to take into account current existing land uses on the SEZ. Known locations of rightsof-way, pipelines, and existing leases and mining claims, including the natural gas power plant and gypsum processing plant, have been identified as nondevelopment areas within the SEZ. The remaining developable area of the SEZ has been reduced to 3,471 acres (14 km 2 ) (Figure 2-8). This reduction in developable area of the SEZ also will reduce potential impacts identified in the Final Solar PEIS (e.g., far fewer acres of habitat reduction will occur for vegetation and wildlife species, including special status species). In addition, an eligible archaeological site (i.e., Old Spanish Trail/Mormon Road) within a right-of-way will be avoided. Figure 2-8. Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone revised developable area. 20 • REGIONAL MITIGATION STRATEGY FOR THE DRY LAKE SOLAR ENERGY ZONE • TECHNICAL NOTE 444
2.4.2 Minimization 2.4.2.1 Summary of Programmatic Design Features to be Applied The Final Solar PEIS identified a comprehensive suite of required programmatic design features that would avoid and/or minimize adverse impacts to resources, either onsite or through consultation/ coordination with potentially affected entities. The programmatic design features are extensive and are listed in their entirety in Appendix A of the Solar PEIS ROD (BLM 2012). These programmatic design features include required actions to avoid or minimize impacts to all of the potentially impacted resources listed in Section 2.3. 2.4.2.2 Other Required Impact Minimization Measures and/or Stipulations The Final Solar PEIS also includes SEZ-specific design features for all of the SEZs. The SEZspecific design features identified for the Dry Lake SEZ were the following: Water resources: Groundwater analyses suggest that full buildout of dry-cooled and wet-cooled technologies is not feasible; for mixed-technology development scenarios, any proposed dry- or wet-cooled projects should use water conservation practices. Wildlife (mammals): The fencing around the solar energy development should not block the free movement of mammals, particularly big game species. Cultural resources: Coordination with the trail administration for the Old Spanish Trail and Old Spanish Trail Association is recommended for identifying potential mitigation strategies for avoiding or minimizing potential impacts on the congressionally designated Old Spanish National Historic Trail and also on any remnants of the National Register of Historic Placeslisted sites associated with the Old Spanish Trail/Mormon Road that may be located within the SEZ. Avoidance of the Old Spanish Trail site within the southeastern portion of the proposed SEZ is recommended. Native American concerns: The Moapa Band of Paiute Indians have specifically requested formal government-to-government contact when construction or land management projects are being proposed on and/or near the Muddy River, Virgin River, Colorado River, Arrow Canyon Range, Potato Woman, and Apex Pleistocene Lake. Compensatory programs of mitigation could be implemented to provide access to and/or deliberately cultivate patches of culturally significant plants within the Dry Lake SEZ or on other public lands nearby where tribes have ready access. The BLM should consider assisting the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians with the preparation of forms to nominate identified sacred places as traditional cultural properties, if it is found that all the proper eligibility requirements are met. Some additional minimization measures would likely be identified during preparation of a NEPA analysis to support a competitive lease offering within the SEZ. These measures would also be incorporated into the lease offering as stipulations. For example, if any archaeological sites are found during the cultural resource inventory (see text box titled Dry Lake Cultural Resources) and are determined to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, onsite mitigation or avoidance strategies will be considered during consultation with the BLM-Nevada state historic preservation officer and affected tribes to minimize impacts on significant cultural resources. 2.4.3 Regional Mitigation Identifying the impacts of utility-scale solar development that may warrant regional mitigation involves three steps: (1) identifying all the potential impacts; (2) identifying which of the potential impacts are likely to be unavoidable (i.e., the impacts that cannot be mitigated onsite by avoidance and/or the implementation of design features meant to minimize the impact); and (3) identifying which of the unavoidable impacts may warrant regional mitigation by taking into consideration the condition and trend of the impacted resources in the region and how they could be affected by the unavoidable impacts. As part of the Dry Lake SRMS process, a team of specialists from the BLM Southern Nevada District Office (called the interdisciplinary team) reevaluated the potential impacts of solar development that were described in the Final Solar PEIS (see Section 2.3) in the light of available data specific to the SEZ area. This team, along with other BLM subject matter experts and Argonne National Laboratory subject matter experts, followed the methodology presented in Sections 2.4.3.1 and 2.4.3.2 for first identifying unavoidable impacts from solar development in the SEZ, and then for identifying the unavoidable impacts that may warrant regional mitigation. REGIONAL MITIGATION STRATEGY FOR THE DRY LAKE SOLAR ENERGY ZONE • TECHNICAL NOTE 444 • 21
Page 1 and 2: Regional Mitigation Strategy for th
Page 3 and 4: Regional Mitigation Strategy for th
Page 5 and 6: TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT_________
Page 7 and 8: The “Regional Mitigation Strategy
Page 9 and 10: 1.2 Background I n 2012, the BLM an
Page 11 and 12: 1.4 Stakeholder Involvement in the
Page 13 and 14: Range. A full description of the la
Page 15 and 16: plant communities of regional impor
Page 17 and 18: Figure 2-4. Dry Lake Solar Energy Z
Page 19 and 20: Figure 2-6. Land cover types in the
Page 21 and 22: Geospatial Data 1. Landscape Condit
Page 23 and 24: Table 2-3 (continued). Solar Energy
Page 25: 2.3 Summary of Solar Development Im
Page 29 and 30: documented (see Appendix A, Impact
Page 31 and 32: • Manage desert tortoise habitat
Page 33 and 34: Step 1: Select Mitigation Action(s)
Page 35 and 36: 2.8 Evaluation of Mitigation Locati
Page 37 and 38: Figure 2-10. Gold Butte Area of Cri
Page 39 and 40: Mitigation Goals and Tasks Reason W
Page 41 and 42: 2.9 Mitigation Effectiveness Monito
Page 43 and 44: (MacKinnon et al. 2011) and supplem
Page 45 and 46: are evaluated. These data are also
Page 47 and 48: Remote sensing technologies provide
Page 49 and 50: 2.10 Implementation Strategy This p
Page 51 and 52: References BLM (Bureau of Land Mana
Page 53 and 54: Resource/ Issue Are impacts compreh
Page 55 and 56: Resource/ Issue Are impacts compreh
Page 57 and 58: Appendix B: Regional and Dry Lake S
Page 59 and 60: Tier 3 Conceptual Model, Dry Lake S
Page 61 and 62: Resource/ Issue Unavoidable Impacts
Page 63 and 64: Appendix D: BLM Screening of Candid
Page 65 and 66: # Criteria SEZ Candidate Sites Note
Page 67 and 68: # Criteria SEZ Candidate Sites Note
Page 69 and 70: Appendix E: Mitigation of Visual Re
Page 71 and 72: The Dry Lake SEZ is located within
Page 73 and 74: This distribution indicates that Sc
Page 75 and 76: for determining VRM Class objective
Page 77 and 78:
Figure 7. BLM Southern Nevada Distr
Page 79 and 80:
Sensitivity. Distribution of sensit
Page 81 and 82:
VRM Class Objectives: The majority
Page 83:
Desert National Wildlife Refuge, th
show all

xs7hy9e06w?redirect_to=http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wo/blm_library/tech_notes.Par.29872.File.dat/TN_444

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?