DOCKET Commissioner Carla Peterman, Associate Member Hearing Officer Kenneth Celli 11-AFC-2
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State Of California The Resources Agency of California Memorandum Date: June 15, 2012 Telephone: (916) 654-4894 File: 11-AFC-2 To: Commissioner Karen Douglas, Presiding Member DOCKET Commissioner Carla Peterman, Associate Member Hearing Officer Kenneth Celli 11-AFC-2 DATE JUN 15 2012 From: California Energy Commission - Mike Monasmith 1516 Ninth Street Senior Project Manager JUN 2012 Sacramento, CA 95814-5512 RECD. 15 Subject: HIDDEN HILLS SOLAR ELECTRIC GENERATING SYSTEM (11-AFC-2) SUPPLEMENTAL STAFF ASSESSMENT / SCHEDULE UPDATE As was promised when staff published its Preliminary Staff Assessment (PSA) for the Hidden Hills Solar Electric Generating System (HHSEGS) on May 24, 2012, enclosed please find staff’s Supplemental Staff Assessment (SSA), which contains the preliminary Cultural Resources staff assessment for HHSEGS. Staff also provides an updated schedule to the Committee, and specifics related to the three PSA Workshop agendas. ACTIVITY Calendar Day Preliminary Staff Assessment (PSA) Publication 05-24-12 PSA Workshop I – Pahrump, NV 06-14-12 Supplemental Staff Assessment (SSA) Publication 06-15-12 PSA Workshop II – Bishop, CA 06-27-12 PSA Workshop III – Sacramento, CA 07-02-12 PSA comment period concludes 07-06-12 Committee Status Conference 07-09-12 SSA comment period concludes 07-16-12 Final Staff Assessment (FSA) Publication 08-01-12 PSA Workshop I (June 14, 2012 in Pahrump, Nevada) - Traffic & Transportation, Worker Safety / Fire Protection, Water Supply, Visual Resources PSA Workshop II (June 27, 2012 in Bishop, California) - Air Quality / Public Health, Biological Resources, Cultural Resources, Land Use, Socioeconomics PSA Workshop III (July 2, 2012 in Sacramento, California) - Alternatives, TSE, Misc. Issues (carry-over discussions from Workshops I and II) PROOF OF SERVICE ( REVISED 6/5/12 ) FILED WITH ORIGINAL MAILED FROM SACRAMENTO ON 6/15/12 DLS CULTURAL RESOURCES Thomas Gates, Amber Grady, Michael McGuirt SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS Staff concludes, pending the receipt and consideration of outstanding information and the completion of ongoing analyses, that the proposed Hidden Hills Solar Electric Generating System (HHSEGS or Hidden Hills) project would have significant and unavoidable impacts to an archaeological landscape, three ethnographic landscapes, and an historic trail and road corridor. Feasible mitigation is being considered and is reflected in the proposed cultural resources Conditions of Certification CUL-1 through CUL-12, with specific emphasis oan CUL-9 through CUL-12. However, no mitigation measures for any of these five historical resources, individually or cumulatively, would reduce the impacts of the proposed project to a less than significant level. Archaeology The archaeological analysis for the HHSEGS project to date has identified the Pahrump Metapatch Mesquite Woodland-Coppice Dune Archaeological Landscape, located just to the northeast of the facility site, as a historical resource assumed eligible for the California Register of Historical Resources (CRHR). This resource represents the aboriginal use of a locally significant ecological zone during still undetermined periods over probably at least the last 12,000 years. The visual impact of the proposed project on the landscape would severely degrade the ability of the resource to convey its association with aboriginal lifeways1 of the Holocene epoch. Staff has also determined that the archaeological deposits found within the boundaries of the project site are not significant as individual resources and are not contributors to the Pahrump Metapatch Mesquite Woodland-Coppice Dune Archaeological Landscape. Ethnography The ethnographic analysis for the HHSEGS project has identified three ethnographic landscapes that are within the ethnographic project area of analysis (PAA) and assumed eligible for the CRHR: 1. Salt Song Landscape 2. Pahrump Paiute Home Landscape 3. Mo hav Landscape The impacts of the proposed project on these historical resources would be significant, and the mitigation proposed in CUL-10 through CUL-12 would not reduce these impacts to a less than significant level. Staff’s proposed compensatory mitigation with the Native American Tribes who would be most affected by impacts to these landscapes. However, even with the adoption and implementation of compensatory mitigation, the project 1 A “lifeway,” as used herein, refers to any unique body of behavioral norms, customs, and traditions that structure the way a particular people carry out their daily lives. June 2012 1 CULTURAL RESOURCES would still have significant and unmitigable effects on Native American spiritual practices dependent on these resources. Historic Built-Environment At least one historical built-environment resource, the Old Spanish Trail-Mormon Road, has been identified in the HHSEGS PAA thus far. Substantial information, including the National Register of Historic Places nomination of the Nevada segments of the Old Spanish Trail, has led staff to conclude that, within the PAA, this resource is not represented by a single route, but as a corridor of converging and intermingled tracks and trails. The project site is located within this corridor, with traces running throughout the project site. Staff has concluded that that the impacts of the proposed HHSGS project to this Old Spanish Trail-Mormon Road Northern Corridor (Corridor) would be significant and, even with full implementation of CUL-9 and CUL-12, would not be mitigated to a less than significant level. INTRODUCTION This environmental assessment identifies the potential impacts of the HHSEGS project on cultural resources. The term “cultural resource” means any tangible or observable evidence of past human activity, regardless of significance, found in direct association with a geographic location, including tangible properties possessing intangible traditional cultural values. Historical resources are defined under California state law as including, but not necessarily limited to, any object, building, structure, site, area, place, record, or manuscript that is historically or archaeologically significant, or is significant in the architectural, engineering, scientific, economic, agricultural, educational, social, political, military, or cultural annals of California. [PRC(a)] Three kinds of cultural resources, classified by their origins, are considered in this assessment: prehistoric, ethnographic, and historic. Under federal and state historic preservation law, cultural resources must be at least 50 years old to have sufficient historical importance to merit consideration of eligibility for listing in the California Register of Historical Resources (CRHR). A resource less than 50 years of age must be of exceptional historical importance to be considered for listing. Prehistoric archaeological resources are associated with the human occupation and use of California prior to prolonged European contact. These resources may include sites and deposits, structures, artifacts, rock art, trails, and other traces of Native American human behavior. In California, the prehistoric period began over 12,000 years ago and extended through the eighteenth century until 1769, when the first Europeans settled in California. Ethnographic resources represent the heritage of a particular ethnic or cultural group, such as Native Americans or African, European, Latino, or Asian immigrants. They may include traditional resource-collecting areas, ceremonial sites, value-imbued landscapes and related features, cemeteries, shrines, or ethnic neighborhoods and structures. Ethnographic resources are variations of natural resources and standard cultural resource types. They are subsistence and ceremonial locales and sites, structures, objects, and rural and urban landscapes assigned cultural significance by traditional CULTURAL RESOURCES 2 June 2012 users. The decision to call resources "ethnographic" depends on whether associated peoples perceive them as traditionally meaningful to their identity as a group and the survival of their lifeways. Historic-period resources, both archaeological and architectural, are associated with Euro-American exploration and settlement of an area and the beginning of a written historical record. They may include archaeological deposits, sites, structures, traveled ways, artifacts, or other evidence of human activity. Groupings of historic-period resources are also recognized as historic districts and as historic vernacular landscapes. For the HHSEGS project, staff provides an overview of the environmental setting and history of the project area from a cultural resources perspective, an inventory of the cultural resources identified in the project vicinity, and an analysis of the project’s potential impacts to significant cultural resources, using criteria from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and CEQA Guidelines. If cultural resources are identified, staff determines which are historically significant (defined as eligible for the CRHR or by other significance criteria) and whether the HHSEGS would have a substantial adverse impact on those that are determined to be historically significant. Staff’s primary concern is to ensure that all potentially significant cultural resources are identified, all potential project-related impacts to those resources are identified and assessed, and conditions are proposed that ensure that all significant impacts that cannot be avoided are mitigated to a less than significant level or to the extent feasible. LAWS, ORDINANCES, REGULATIONS,