Bureau of Land Management's Decision Record and Environmental

Jersey Valley Geothermal Development Project
Environmental Assessment: NV063-EAO8-091
entity with a field visit having been conducted on June 4, 2009. Recent communications with
tribal leadership has resulted in another field tour request by the Battle Mountain Band
Chairman. Arrangements are forthcoming.
3.4.2 Environmental Consequences
3.4.2.1 Proposed Action
Concerns and discussion topics raised to date include impacts to identified cultural resources
within the proposed Project Area, and also impacts to hot springs.
• BLM law enforcement monitoring significant sites especially Jersey Valley hot springs;
• Eliminating impacts to wildlife during heavy construction periods especially near water
sources and allowing access to water sources up the canyons above the Project Area;
• Responsibility for road maintenance and improvement;
• Tribal monitor/observer opportunities during transmission line, facility and pipeline
construction and any planned or inadvertent data recovery efforts;
• Maintaining existing access routes (trails and roads) and not increasing access to formerly
inaccessible locations;
• Ensuring no drawdown of hot and cold spring sources and preventing any continued
degradation of local springs; and
• Undeniable impacts to cold and hot water sources as a result of previous mining and
geothermal projects throughout Nevada.
Adopted environmental protection measures and mitigations have been proposed which address
these concerns and include avoidance of all eligible and unevaluated cultural resource sites and
implementation of a hydrologic monitoring plan (see Sections 2.1.11, 3.9.2, and 3.3.2).
Additionally, geothermal lease stipulations (see Appendix A), direct that adverse impacts to
springs are not allowed.
Vehicles, equipment, and personnel used for planning, exploration, construction and
maintenance purposes can have negative impacts to areas utilized by native peoples and
associated artifacts as identified in Section 33. Long and short term noise and visual impacts can
have a detrimental impact to existing cultural/traditional/spiritual activities that may occur in
certain areas. As consistently stated during previous communications, sacred sites such as prayer,
sweat lodge, medicinal/strength gathering, and edible/medicinal plant gathering locations must
remain quiet and undisturbed and a sense of reverence maintained.
The physical remains of past cultural and subsistence practices and activities (antelope traps,
points, flakes, stone tools, grinding stones, etc...) are also considered to be extremely important
and sacred due to such artifacts having been made by the ancestors and considered the evidence
of thousands of years of native inhabitance. Archaeological sites within or in close proximity to
certain project boundaries have been known to experience various levels of degradation, thus
eliminating not only the physical evidence of native occupation, but also archaeological data,
which can produce a better understanding of past and present cultures. Archaeological data along
-41-