[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 9 (Friday, January 13, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2376-2378]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-00273]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 40-8907; NRC-2019-0026]
United Nuclear Corporation; Church Rock Uranium Mill Site
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Environmental impact statement and programmatic agreement;
issuance.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a
final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), NUREG-2243, ``Environmental
Impact Statement for the Disposal of Mine Waste at the United Nuclear
Corporation Mill Site in McKinley County, New Mexico,'' for United
Nuclear Corporation's (UNC) request for a license amendment to allow
the disposition of about 1 million cubic yards of mine waste from the
Northeast Church Rock (NECR) Mine Site at UNC's uranium mill site in
McKinley County, New Mexico. The NRC is also issuing a final
Programmatic Agreement (PA) under section 106 of the National Historic
Preservation Act (NHPA) that provides requirements for the NRC, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and UNC to follow to ensure that
cultural resources are protected during project activities.
DATES: The EIS and PA referenced in this document are available on
January 13, 2023.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2019-0026 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding these documents.
You may obtain publicly available information related to these
documents using any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0026. Address
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann;
telephone: 301-415-0624; email: [email protected]. For technical
questions, contact the individual listed in the For Further Information
Contact section of this document.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the
ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``Begin Web-based ADAMS
Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public
Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or
by email to [email protected]. For the convenience of the reader,
instructions about obtaining materials referenced in this document are
provided in the ``Availability of Documents'' section.
NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public
documents, by appointment, at the NRC's PDR, Room P1 B35, One White
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. To make
an appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to
[email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between
8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET), Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays.
Project Website: Information related to the Church Rock
project can be accessed on the NRC's public website at https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/uranium/united-nuclear-corporation.html.
Public Libraries: A copy of the final EIS will be made
available at each of the following public libraries:
Octavia Fellin Public Library, 115 W Hill Ave., Gallup, NM 87301
Gallup Zollinger Library at the University of New Mexico, 705 Gurley
Avenue, Gallup, NM 87301
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christine Pineda, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-6789, email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NRC is issuing two documents, a final
EIS and a final PA. These documents are described in the following
subsections.
I. Environmental Impact Statement
Background
In accordance with section 51.118 of title 10 of the Code of
Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Final environmental impact statement--
notice of availability,'' the NRC is making available NUREG-2243, the
NRC's final EIS for a proposed license amendment that would allow UNC
to place uranium mine waste into a repository at UNC's NRC-licensed
uranium mill site and to make certain improvements at the site. Notices
of availability of the draft EIS were published in the Federal Register
(FR) on November 13, 2020, by the NRC (85 FR 72706) and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (85 FR 72649). After granting two
extensions, the NRC closed the public comment period for the draft EIS
on May 27, 2021. On June 17, 2021, in response to a request from the
President of the Navajo Nation, the NRC re-opened the public comment
period until November 1, 2021 (86 FR 32285). Appendix B of the final
EIS contains summaries of and responses to the comments received. A
separate report containing the as-received comments is available in the
``Availability of Documents'' section. This report follows the
organization of EIS Appendix B.
Discussion
The NRC is issuing the final EIS for an application from UNC
requesting an amendment to license SUA-1475 for the UNC mill tailings
disposal site in McKinley County, New Mexico. The proposed license
amendment would allow UNC to transfer and dispose of uranium mine waste
from the nearby NECR Mine Site, located across New Mexico Highway 566
from the UNC Mill Site. Approximately 1 million cubic yards of mine-
impacted soil and debris present at the NECR Mine Site (on primarily
tribal trust lands) would be removed and placed in a repository to be
constructed at the UNC Mill Site. The
[[Page 2377]]
proposed license amendment would also authorize certain improvements to
the existing tailings impoundment. The proposed NRC action would
facilitate an action by the EPA under the Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation, and Liability Act to remove the mine waste from
the Northeast Church Rock Mine Site, as documented in a 2013 EPA Record
of Decision (EPA 2013).
The final EIS is being issued as part of the NRC's process to
decide whether to approve the requested license amendment. In this
final EIS, the NRC staff has assessed the potential environmental
impacts of the proposed action, two secondary alternatives (options for
implementing certain aspects of the proposed action), and the no action
alternative on land use, transportation, geology and soils, water
resources, ecological resources, air quality, noise, historic and
cultural resources, visual and scenic resources, socioeconomics,
environmental justice, public and occupational health, and waste
management. The NRC staff determined that the potential impacts from
the proposed action and two secondary alternatives would range from
``small'' to ``small to moderate'' for the analyzed environmental
resource areas. The NRC staff also concludes that local Navajo Nation
communities, namely the Red Water Pond Road, Pipeline Road, and
Pinedale communities, are closer than any other community to the
proposed project area, and these communities have experienced a range
of significant impacts because of historical uranium mining and milling
activities over many decades. The staff concludes that the activities
of the proposed action, which would occur primarily within a three to
four year period, would likewise affect these communities
disproportionately with regard to traffic and transportation, air
quality, noise levels, and visual disturbances.
The NRC staff also considered the no-action alternative, under
which the NRC would not approve UNC's license amendment request. A key
distinction between the proposed action (including secondary
alternatives) and the no-action alternative is the timing of impacts
associated with the cleanup of the Northeast Church Rock Mine Site. If
the NRC does not approve the license amendment request, the mine waste
would not be transferred to the UNC mill site and the EPA would need to
evaluate or reevaluate other options for disposing of the mine waste.
During the comment period on the draft EIS, the NRC received 100
comment submittals resulting in 1,300 unique comments. Comments were
submitted by individuals, organizations, and government agencies,
including Navajo Nation government agencies. Because the proposed
project would be conducted on and near Navajo Nation land and
communities, Sections 1.4.2 and B.2.1.1 of the EIS provide descriptions
of the topics and concerns raised by Navajo individuals and the Navajo
government about the proposal and past uranium mining and milling
activities.
After evaluating the impacts of the proposed action and two
secondary alternatives, and comparing them to the no-action
alternative, the NRC staff, in accordance with 10 CFR part 51, sets
forth its National Environmental Policy Act recommendation. The
potential adverse environmental impacts of the proposed action and the
two secondary alternatives do not preclude issuing a license amendment.
This recommendation is based on (i) the license application, which
includes the environmental report and supplemental documents and the
licensee's responses to the NRC staff's requests for additional
information; (ii) consultation with Federal, State, Tribal, and local
agencies and input from other stakeholders, including all comments
received on the draft EIS; and (iii) independent NRC staff review as
set forth in this EIS. The NRC staff concludes that removal of mine
wastes from the former Northeast Church Rock Mine Site and
consolidation of the mine materials over existing mill tailings on
private property would minimize the footprint of waste disposal
facilities and make the land available again for unrestricted use by
the Navajo Nation.
II. NHPA Section 106 Programmatic Agreement
Background
The NRC is issuing a final PA to ensure compliance with Section 106
of the NHPA (54 U.S.C. 306108) and its implementing regulations (36 CFR
800). The NRC published a notice of availability of the draft PA on
December 6, 2021 (86 FR 69103) and closed the comment period on January
20, 2022. The NRC staff received and addressed two substantive comments
on the draft PA.
Discussion
The PA describes the measures that UNC would follow to mitigate or
eliminate the potential for adverse impacts to cultural resources
during the implementation of the proposed action, if approved. The NRC,
EPA, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, the New
Mexico State Historic Preservation Officer, the Navajo Nation
President, Navajo Nation Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, and UNC
are signatories to the PA. The EPA is the lead agency for implementing
the PA, which was executed on the date of the last signature, June 13,
2022. Sections 3.9 and 4.9 of the EIS contain information about the PA
and cultural resources in the project area.
III. Availability of Documents
The documents identified in the following table are available to
interested persons through one or more of the following methods, as
indicated.
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Document ADAMS accession No./web link
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Final EIS: ``NUREG-2243, Environmental ML22356A145, https://
Impact Statement for the Disposal of www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2235/
Mine Waste at the United Nuclear ML22356A145.pdf.
Corporation Mill Site in McKinley
County, New Mexico''.
Report of Comments on the Draft EIS: ML22110A106, https://
``Public Comments on the Draft www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2211/
Environmental Impact Statement for the ML22110A106.pdf.
Disposal of Mine Waste at the United
Nuclear Corporation Mill Site in
McKinley County, New Mexico''.
Draft EIS: ``NUREG-2243, Environmental ML20289A621, https://
Impact Statement for the Disposal of www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2028/
Mine Waste at the United Nuclear ML20289A621.pdf.
Corporation Mill Site in McKinley
County, New Mexico''.
Programmatic Agreement for UNC Church ML22074A047, https://
Rock Mill Site License Amendment and www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2207/
Northeast Church Rock Mine Site ML22074A047.pdf.
Cleanup.
EPA Record of Decision: ``United ML13095A352, https://
Nuclear Corporation Site, McKinley www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1309/
County, New Mexico. USEPA ID ML13095A352.pdf.
NMD030443303; Operable Unit: OU 02,
Surface Soil Operable Unit,'' dated
March 2013.
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[[Page 2378]]
Dated: January 5, 2022.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Christopher M. Regan,
Director, Division of Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support,
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2023-00273 Filed 1-12-23; 8:45 am]
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