A Case Study: National Monument -Nevada1

Dan Hamson and Toni Ristau 2/

Abstract: With passage of the Mining in the Parks Act (P.L. 94-429) in 1976, the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, was given the responsibility of preparing a report to Congress outlining the environmental consequences of mining on claims within Death Valley National Monument. In addition, the Secretary of the Interior is required to formulate a recommendation to Congress on the acquisition or continued mining of claims within the monument, and on any boundary adjust- ment that could be undertaken to exclude mining claims and thereby reduce acquisition costs. As scenic qualities are specifically identified in the proclamation creating the monument as one of the monument's prime resources, an analysis of the visibility of mining activities by monument visi- tors was undertaken. The results of this analysis were incorporated in the discussion of environmen- tal consequences and were used in the formula- tion of the Secretary's recommendation to Congress.

INTRODUCTION months after establishment of the monument, an action by Congress re- Death Valley National Monument opened Death Valley to mineral was established in February 1933 by location. Presidential proclamation under the authority of the Antiquities Act of Two primary types of claims for 1906 (fig. 1). When President Hoover minerals can be located under the made the proclamation, special note Mining Law of 1872: placer and lode. was taken of the "unusual features of Placer claims which may be as large as scenic, scientific, and educational 160 acres are filed where alluvial interest therein contained . . .,"and, deposits contain ore which has been as a result of the proclamation, carried away from its original source, lands within the monument were closed usually by the action of water. Lode to mineral entry. However, four claims which may be approximately 21 acres are filed upon rock-in-place which contains a vein or lode, along 1/Presented at the National Conference with the adjoining surface. on Applied Techniques for Analysis and Management of the Visual Resource, In addition, the miner may claim Incline Village, Nevada, April 23-25, up to 5 acres of nonmineralized land 1979. for use as a millsite. A valid or patented millsite entitles the owner 2/Environmental Specialist, and Environmental to use of the surface, including such Engineer (project manager), Denver Service resources as water and timber, to sup- Center, National Park Service, Denver, Colorado. port his mining or milling operations

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Figure 1-- VICINITY MAP

CALIFORNIA NEVADA DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL MONUMENT PUBLIC LAW 94 429 MINING STUDY

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Death Valley has had a romanticized general public, it was discovered that history of prospecting and mining. the company was within its rights The image of the grizzled prospector under the Mining Law of 1872, and that moving tracklessly across the desert the NPS could do little to prevent with his faithful burro, and the 20- such an operation (fig 2). When mule-team wagon trains making Congress authorized mineral entry in the 250-mile trek to Mojave, Califor- the monument it allowed not only the nia, are an established part of west- prospector with burro, pick and shovel, ern lore. Early prospecting and but large-scale strip mining operations mining operations were small-scale as well. The resultant public outcry efforts; the mines themselves were prompted Congress to take steps to underground. Despite continuing prevent the desecration of Death Valley efforts to find untold mineral riches, National Monument's natural, cultural the operations in Death Valley netted and scenic resources. only about $2 million in the 60 years following the first flurries of pros- On September 28, 1976, Congress pecting activities in the 1880h. Small passed the Mining in the Parks Act amounts of precious metals were dis- (Public Law 94-429). This law pro- covered and mined out, but the most vided, among other things, that profitable commodities in the region National Park System lands be closed proved to be talc and borates. to future mineral entry, that exist- ing mineral claims be examined for Talc is a relatively common validity, that the environmental mineral, and it is mined in several consequences of mineral extraction parts of the country (Wendel 1978). upon these valid claims he examined, There was a brief rise in talc mining and that upon completion of these activity during World War II, but the examinations the Secretary of the operations since that time have been Interior make a recommendation to sporadic and small-scale, and remain Congress on whether to: (1) allow so today. Sizeable amounts of borates mining to continue; (2) acquire valid within this country, however, are only claims, or; (3) exclude significant found in southern California and mineral deposits by boundary adjust- Nevada (Wendel 1978). A few years ment in order to reduce the cost of after borates were found in Death acquisition. In order to protect Valley, much larger discoveries of against additional damage to surface sodium borates were made in the Searles resources during the time allotted Lake and Boron, California area, about for the studies, a moratorium on 100 miles southwest of the monument further surface disturbance for the (Cranston 1976). As a result, inter- purposes of mineral extraction was est was shifted to those areas and imposed; this moratorium applied to mining for borax in the monument was Death Valley. The Secretary of the essentially shut down. Interior was given until September 28, 1978 to perform the required In the early 1970h, increased studies and formulate his recommen- demand for colemanite and ulexite (the dation to Congress. sodium-calcium borate ores found in Death Valley National Monument) The NPS was given the responsi- prompted Tenneco Oil Company to enter bility for conducting the studies Death Valley National Monument and mandated by P.L. 94-429. As there was stake claims for borates directly little time available in which to below Zabriskie Point. Internationally perform fieldwork and complete the famous, Zabriskie Point is one of the studies, the two facets of the pro- prime scenic viewpoints within the ject--validity determination and monument; it was the view from Zab- assessment of environmental conse- riskie Point that, over one hundred quences--proceeded simultaneously. years ago, prompted pioneer William Originally, 860 unpatented mineral Manly to write that he had "just seen claims were recorded with the super- all of God's creation." After locating intendent in compliance with P.L. 94- their claims, Tenneco announced plans 429. After completion of fieldwork, to begin a strip-mining operation for 22 of these claims were determined to borates. To the horror of both the be valid by the examining mining National Park Service (NPS) and the engineers, with the remaining claims

342 being contested. Within Death Valley SCOPE OF REPORT here are 118 patented claims in addi- Because scenic quality is recog- tion to the 22 valid unpatented ' claims. The valid and patented claims nized to be one of the monument s can be combined in various ways to special resource values, the impact offer a large number of alternatives on the landscape of the Death Valley which would allow mining on some was of major concern to the NPS. claims, provide for acquisition of some Most visitors to the monument come to claims, or exclude certain claims view the spectacle of multicolored through boundary adjustment. It was rock, magnificent desert vistas, decided, in order to facilitate the stark salt pans and majestic choice of reasonable alternatives, the ranges. Therefore, in assessing the first step would be to study the visual impact of mining, there was no environmental consequences of mineral need to conduct a landscape evaluation extraction on all of the valid and to define areas of the monument which patented claims. were of high scenic quality, so it was

Figure 2--1975 photo showing Tenneco's Mining, Inc.'s open pit Boraxo mine located in the upper Furnace Creek Wash area of Death Valley National Monument

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As a result, to define the claims with circle determined. This was then the the highest visibility from sensitive zone of highest sensitivity, where visitor interest areas better, some aesthetic impact would be greater. groups were later split and run again. However, in the final report, data were presented for both zones; acreages Again, because of time constraints, were calculated, both within the 25- some important factors for visibility mile radius and for the entire monument were not included in the study (e.g., as well. Finally, the number of contrast, horizon silhouetting of visitor interest points and miles of above-ground structors, and dust/ monument roadway that fell within the smoke plumes). Contrast, for example, viewshed were identified. With this was viewed by most members of the information, the team was able to study team as extremely important. estimate the number of visitors who For instance, talc is starkly white might annually view the current or and offers a high degree of contrast potential mining operations during with the natural colors of the sur- their visit to the monument. rounding rock and vegetation, making talc operations slightly more visible from greater distances. However, CONCLUSIONS recent reclamation programs on existing operations within the monument which The "visibility" analysis carried mask the tailings by covering them out as one part of the overall study with darker overburden materials have on the environmental consequences of proven quite successful in reducing mining within Death Valley National the visibility of these operations. Monument was extremely valuable 3/. With reclamation in consideration Selection of a computer-assisted pro- then, the study team chose not to gram was necessary to conduct the evaluate contrast as a specific analysis. Without the IMGRID-V1S factor in the program. It must be program, the study team would not have emphasized that the visibility analysis been able to conduct such an analysis was run to show which of the mining manually within project time con- claims would be visible from visitor- straints and visibility would have interest areas. The analysis did not been less completely addressed as a purport to include any information on factor in the environmental assess- the relative intrusiveness of differing ment. The automated program also types of mining methods or on the provided a more objective analysis by commodity mined, etc. helping to remove bias so often present in any manual analysis. Most impor- The data obtained from the computer tantly, the study team was able to model were plotted on monument-wide quantify the impacts on the scenic base maps, which delineate the areas and/or aesthetic resources of the within the monument from which one or monument and relate these impacts more of a particular set of claims is directly to numbers of visitors poten- visible. With the help of the monument tially affected. For instance, in staff, the most popular visitor points figure 3, the mining proposed for the were identified and plotted on the three claim groups would disturb a base map (fig 3). 3/The study mandated by P.L. 94-429 After field checking, the study for Death Valley National Monument was team decided that the recognition submitted to Congress in two parts-- factor (discussed earlier in this Phase I discussed the environmental paper) would drop off dramatically consequences of mineral extraction and from 20 to 25 miles from the mine area included the "visibility" analysis as so that even if the area were visible one factor to consider, and Phase II from a great distance, the casual presented alternatives for allowing observer would not be able to identify mining, boundary adjustment, and a mining operation as an unnatural acquisition of mining claims. At this feature. To assist the evaluation, a writing, Congress has not made its circle with a 25-mile radius was drawn decision on a course of action re- around each claim group analyzed and garding mining in Death Valley and in the acreage affected within that other National Park System units.

344 not necessary or desirable to address format. Without the information subjective aesthetic values. The task available on the NCIC tapes, it would was simply to determine which existing not have been possible to have the or potential mining operations would terrain information digitized and likely be visible from heavily used carry out the analysis within the time visitor interest areas in the monument and budget constraints established for and to identify those claims where the project. mining operations would alter the scenic quality of the monument. In A study area boundary was selected carrying out this task, the parameters to encompass the entire monument. The of "visibility" were defined to be the area contained 54,540 information range in which a mine area could be cells each approximately 83 acres in recognized as such, and not just size, covering an area of approximately something "spotted" on the landscape. 7,100 square miles. An elevation We felt this was important for an area point was selected for each cell from such as Death Valley where most views information read from the NCIC tapes. arc of semi-barren, multicolored rock. To ensure that the analysis would be on the conservative side, the lowest point inside each cell was used, METHODS AND RESULTS rather than the average or the highest. Mining claims were grouped according In order to objectively analyze to specific geographic and mineral the more than 2.1 million acres con- resource characteristics. This facil- tained within Death Valley National itated the analysis by eliminating the Monument a computer-assisted program need to make a run from each individ- was imperative. In consultation with ual mining claim (each lode claim is our in-house Automatic Data Processing approximately 20 acres while each unit, the study team decided to use a placer claim is a maximum of 160 routine developed by Colorado State acres). Selection of claims for University which utilizes the IMGRID grouping therefore was important since cellular data system developed by the single data points were required both Department of Landscape Architecture to represent claim groups and to fit at Harvard University. The IMGRID the level of refinement mandated by system is essentially a-computer the 83-acre cell size of the program. program designed to manipulate natural resource data which have been organized Mining claim locations were in a grid cell structure. Visual incorporated into the program according information System (VIS), the CSU to information furnished by the Mining program, is a routine of IMGRID which Office in Death Valley. To reduce analyzes the terrain visible from a computer costs, all searches or visual single point or from multiple observer scans originated from the group of points. A search of 360 degrees is mining claims and scanned an arc with made from the observer point to delin- a horizontal map distance of 79 miles eate the viewshed for a given hori- and a vertical map distance of 82-1/2 zontal distance. miles. A factor of 5 feet was added to each cell searched to obtain an The IMGRID-VIS program was chosen average height for a person standing so that the terrain information already in one location and looking into the digitized by the Defense Mapping mining area; the origin point, or mine Service (DMS) and now distributed by claim, was left at ground elevation. the National Cartographic Information Center (NCIC) could be utilized. The tabular form was chosen for These tapes contain digitized topo- the study's final product. Thus, the graphic data from 1/250,000 scale value printed in any particular cell U.S.G.S. topographic maps interpolated indicated the number of mining claim to produce a data print for approxi- groups in each run which could be seen mately every 208 feet on the ground. along a direct sightline from that This data interpolation is accurate location in the monument. If none of within ± 100 feet vertically and the claim groups was visible from a ±400 feet horizontally. Using an location, the cell was left blank. existing routine, the DMS data were The program did not identify which then 1ntergrated into the IMGRID claims within a group were visible.

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346 maximum of 1,390 acres in the Furnace Creek area of the monument. However, U.S. Department of the Interior, the analysis revealed that those National Park Service disturbed lands would be potentially 1978. Environmental Consequences visible from 86,000 acres within 25- of Mineral Extraction: Death miles of the claims and from 559,000 and Organ Pipe Cactus National acres within the monument as a whole, Monuments (Denver Service potentially affecting some 310,000 Center, August 1978). visitors annually.The procedure thus allowed comparison of the vis- U.S. Department of the Interior, ibility of mining operations on the National Park Service various claim groups within the 1978.Discussion of the Alterna- monument. The analysis has also tives for Acquisition of Mining provided help in designing reclama- Claims and/or Boundary Modifi- tion plans for mining operations on cations to Reduce Possible claims highly visible from visitor- Acquisition Costs. Death Valley interest areas. Mining plans of National Monument (Denver Service operations developed with the goal of Center, December 1978). reducing visual impact not only re- duce damage to the scenic environment U.S. Department of the Interior, but also help to reduce the cost of National Park Service reclamation scheduled during operations 1978. Special Report on Borate and when mining activity ceases. Resources (prepared by Clarence Wendel, April 1978). With the value, limitations and weaknesses learned during the Death U.S. Department of the Interior, Valley analysis, the NPS is again National Park Service. using a modified 1MGRID-VIS program 1978.Special Report on Talc for a study on the consequences of Resources (prepared by Clarence open-pit mining in a historic district Wendel, August 1978). of Virginia. For this analysis of 14,000 acres of gently rolling terrain, the study team is digitizing its own topographic data at a greater level of definition, interpolating to within two foot contour intervals. In addition, vegetation cover, type and height is also being analyzed to evaluate the seasonal screening effect of the vegetation. With "visibility" a key controversial element in the project, the IMGRID- VIS program will allow the study team to provide a reliable, objective analysis which can directly quantify the impact of the mining on the aesthetic values of the historic district.

LITERATURE CITED

Cranston, Alan 1976.The Battle for Death Valley, In: National Parks and Conser- vation Magazine (Vol. 50, No. 1).

Sinton, David F. 1976.The User's Guide to IMGRID. Department of Landscape Archi- tecture, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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