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IMPACT ASSESSMENT
REPORT ON PROPOSED SHIPMENTS
OF SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL
AND HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE THROUGH EUREKA
COUNTY, NEVADA Prepared for Board of Eureka County Commissioners FINAL August, 2001 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE Part 2 -- DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED ACTION 2 Transportation scenarios 2 Proposed schedule 6 Packaging and vehicles 7 Rail spur construction 7 Rail spur operations 14 Accidents during operations 16 Cumulative project description 18 Part 3 -- AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT 19 A. Overview and General Setting 19 B. The Natural Environment 19 Climate and hydrology, generally 19 Water resources 24 Seismicity 27 Air resources 27 Vegetation and soils 28 Wildlife and fish 29 Range 31 Scenic resources 35 C. The Human Environment 36 Cultural resources 36 Population and demographics 37 Land ownership 37 Economy 37 Housing 40 Mining and minerals 41 Infrastructure and public facilities 43 Public finance 46 Outdoor recreation 47 Public health and the quality of life 48 D. The Regulatory Environment 49 Table of Contents, cont. Part 4 -- ANTICIPATED IMPACTS OF THE PROPOSED ACTION 52 A. The Natural Environment 52 Environmental impacts, generally 52 Hydrology and water resources 52 Air resources 54 Vegetation and soils 55 Wildlife and fish 56 Range resources 57 Scenic resources 59 B. The Human Environment 60 Cultural resources 60 Population and demographics 61 Land ownership 61 Economy 62 Housing 65 Mining and minerals 66 Infrastructure and public facilities 66 Public finance 69 Outdoor recreation 70 Public health and safety 70 Noise, land use, and quality of life 72 Part 5 -- MITIGATION OF ANTICIPATED IMPACTS 74 Mitigation, generally 74 Mitigation of impacts on the natural environment 74 Mitigation of impacts on the human environment 76 Part 6 -- PREPARATION OF THIS REPORT 81 REFERENCES 82 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Map of corridor for proposed Carlin rail line in Eureka County 4 Figure 2 Area of 100-year flood, mapped by FEMA 5 Figure 3 Profile of proposed Carlin rail line in Eureka County 10 Figure 4 Typical cross sections, proposed railroad bed 11 Figure 5a General location map 20 Figure 5b Eureka County map 21 Figure 5c Location map, Beowawe and vicinity 22 Figure 6 Generalized soil map of the Crescent Valley 30 Figure 7a Map of Crescent Valley grazing allotments 32 Figure 7b Map of Geyser allotment 33 Figure 7c Map of South Buckhorn allotment 34 Figure 8 Map of land ownership in northern Eureka County 38 Figure 9 Map of land ownership in northern Eureka County, as affected by rail corridor 39 Figure 10 Map of patented mining claims in and adjacent to the Crescent Valley 42 Figure 11 Map of roads in the Crescent Valley, as affected by rail line construction 67 PREFACE At 9:30 p.m. on August 12, 1939, the Southern Pacific Railroad’s streamliner, The City of San Francisco, derailed in the Palisade Canyon in Eureka County, near Harney, 16 miles west of Carlin, killing 24 people and injuring 121. The SPRR said that a saboteur moved a rail, while others blamed the accident on unsafe speed. The accident was officially ruled a sabotage (DeNevi, 1977; Foote, 1989; Henderson, 1995). The train had departed from Chicago on August 11, and had traveled through Council Bluffs, IA, and Ogden, UT, on its way to San Francisco (Foote, 1989). At a length of about one-quarter mile, a weight of 1.2 million pounds, pulled by six engines generating 5,400 horsepower, with air brakes and a low center of gravity, and costing over $2 million, The City of San Francisco “symbolized the ultimate in safety engineering.” Owned jointly by the SPRR, the Union Pacific Railroad, and the Chicago-Northwestern Railroad, it carried 220 people, including the crew (DeNevi, 1977; Hickson, 1980). Hickson (1980) reports that the engineer “felt the big unit lurch, then jump the tracks, out of control. Crossing the bridge, the power sections and two cars traveled about nine hundred feet before grinding to a stop. Five cars dropped into the Humboldt River and three more went off the tracks and down an embankment. Only four units remained upright on the tracks.” According to Foote’s eyewitness account (1989), the coffee shop car in which he was riding jumped the tracks and tore down a steel truss bridge, and the rest of the train broke apart. Foote was thrown entirely free of the train and was seriously injured. As the story of The City of San Francisco shows, even the best-engineered systems are subject to failure, and vulnerable to human error and sabotage. Other serious accidents have occurred on our nation's transportation systems, even as this report was being prepared, including a train wreck near Battle Mountain, Nevada, and an incident in a tunnel in downtown Baltimore. The latter example was accompanied by three elements that could create a worst-case nuclear transportation accident--fire, water, and mechanical force. The proposed action of the U.S. Department of Energy involves a profound element of risk, which the Congress and the President may impose upon the land and people of Eureka County. It would have numerous impacts--some of them beneficial, others not. This impact assessment report attempts to begin to describe the risk and the impacts, for discussion and deliberation by all affected persons. FINAL 1 August, 2001 Part 1: In accordance with the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act, and in response to the request of Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects, the Board of Eureka County Commissioners directed the preparation of this impact assessment report. The report discusses the anticipated impacts on Eureka County from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) proposal to transport spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste through Eureka County to a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain. On January 20, 2000, Eureka County submitted written comments to the DOE on the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the proposed repository (USDOE, 1999a), including its transportation components. The County said, and continues to believe, that the DEIS is insufficient for decision-making related to the proposed action. This impact assessment report does not take the place of a complete environmental review by the DOE. Within the constraints of available resources and incomplete information regarding the project, it is simply a preliminary survey of anticipated effects and possible needs for mitigation. This report consists of six parts: introduction, description of the proposed action, affected environment, anticipated impacts, mitigation of anticipated impacts, and information on preparation of the report itself. A list of references is also included. Further, Eureka County encourages readers to consult the following list of reports and other resources (some of which are available on the Internet at www.yuccamountain.org) for additional background information:
The reader should direct any comments or questions on this report to Abigail C. Johnson, c/o Yucca Mountain Information Office, Eureka County, P.O. Box 714, Eureka, NV 89316 (775/237-5372). |
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