131 LA UR 03 5862 - National Nuclear Security Administration ...

LANL has also increased the inventory of historic buildings dating to the Manhattan Project and Cold Warperiod. At the same time, LANL has begun to replace these older buildings with modern facilities. Sinceabout 1995, 42 historic buildings have been documented and a number of them have been demolished. Asplans for consolidated operations, infrastructure upgrades, and facility modernization proceed in accordancewith LANL’s CSP2000 and various facility strategic plans, more of the historic buildings will be demolished.The SWEIS ROD, which projected limited new construction, did not address the effects of historic buildingdemolition.4.10 Ecological ResourcesThe SWEIS stated that LANL’s planned activities would enhance biological resources. Under the HabitatManagement Plan (LANL 1998), LANL operations are evaluated against specified criteria to protect sensitivespecies. Since 1999 LANL has evaluated approximately 2,500 projects for compliance with the HabitatManagement Plan. About 305 projects were modified to meet Plan criteria. A few projects could not bemodified to meet these criteria and were independently reviewed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Someof these projects are still in the planning stages; others have been completed. Approximately 24.6 acres ofundeveloped core habitat and 37.8 acres of undeveloped buffer zone would be affected by these projects.The Habitat Management Plan restricts new development within the buffer zone to 25 percent of each Areaof Environmental Interest buffer. LANL projects typically would affect, or have affected, less than 2 percentof a given Area of Environmental Interest.The SWEIS identified approximately 50 acres of wetlands within LANL. Thirteen acres of these wetlandsare supported in whole or in part by effluent from LANL outfalls. With the reductions in effluent flow notedin Section 4.2, the total area of wetlands is less than what it was when the SWEIS was prepared. The effect ofclosing or reducing effluent flow on these 13 acres of wetlands was assessed in the Environmental Assessmentfor the Outfall Reduction Program (DOE 1996). The environmental assessment determined that the potentialloss of the affected wetlands was not significant. The actual reduction in wetland area has not been verifiedby field study.Cerro Grande Fire survivorWetland in Pajarito Canyon4-18SWEIS Yearbook—2002