Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing Final EIS/OEIS September 2018 Final Environmental Impact Statement/Overseas Environmental Impact Statement Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing TABLE OF CONTENTS 3.10 Cultural Resources ..................................................................................... 3.10-1 3.10.1 Introduction and Methods ................................................................................ 3.10-1 3.10.1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................... 3.10-1 3.10.1.2 Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Cultural Resources ......................................................................................... 3.10-2 3.10.1.3 Methods ............................................................................................ 3.10-3 3.10.1.4 Methods for Impact Analysis ............................................................ 3.10-7 3.10.2 Affected Environment ....................................................................................... 3.10-7 3.10.2.1 Submerged Prehistoric Resources .................................................... 3.10-8 3.10.2.2 Known Wrecks, Obstructions, Occurrences, or “Unknowns” ........... 3.10-8 3.10.2.3 Tortugas Military Operations Area ................................................... 3.10-9 3.10.3 Environmental Consequences ........................................................................ 3.10-16 3.10.3.1 Explosive Stressors .......................................................................... 3.10-16 3.10.3.2 Physical Disturbance and Strike Stressors ...................................... 3.10-21 3.10.4 Summary of Potential Impacts on Cultural Resources ................................... 3.10-27 3.10.4.1 Combined Impacts of All Stressors under Alternative 1 ................. 3.10-27 3.10.4.2 Combined Impacts of All Stressors under Alternative 2 ................. 3.10-27 3.10.4.3 Combined Impacts of All Stressors under the No Action Alternative ...................................................................................... 3.10-28 3.10.4.4 National Historic Preservation Act .................................................. 3.10-28 List of Figures Figure 3.10-1: Artifacts from a Submerged Prehistoric Resource ........................................................ 3.10-6 Figure 3.10-2: Submerged Historic Resource (Spanish Galleon) .......................................................... 3.10-7 Figure 3.10-3: High-Resolution Side-Scan Sonar Image of Submerged Historic Resource ................... 3.10-7 Figure 3.10-4: Known Shipwrecks, Obstructions, Occurrences, or Sites Marked as “Unknown” in the Northeast United States Continental Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem ...................................................................................................................... 3.10-10 Figure 3.10-5: Known Shipwrecks, Obstructions, Occurrences, or Sites Marked as “Unknown” in the Southeast United States Continental Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem ...................................................................................................................... 3.10-11 i Table of Contents Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing Final EIS/OEIS September 2018 Figure 3.10-6: Known Shipwrecks, Obstructions, Occurrences, or Sites Marked as “Unknown” in the Southeast United States Continental Shelf, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico Large Marine Ecosystems ............................................................... 3.10-12 List of Tables Table 3.10-1: National Historic Landmarks, Monuments, and Cultural Resource Listed in the National Register of Historic Places ............................................................................... 3.10-13 Table 3.10-2: Summary of Section 106 Effects of Training and Testing Activities on Cultural Resources ....................................................................................................................... 3.10-28 ii Table of Contents Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing Final EIS/OEIS September 2018 3.10 CULTURAL RESOURCES CULTURAL RESOURCES SYNOPSIS The United States Department of the Navy considered all potential stressors that cultural resources could potentially be exposed to from the Proposed Action. The following conclusions have been reached for the Preferred Alternative (Alternative 1): Explosive: Explosive stressors resulting from underwater explosions creating shock waves and cratering of the seafloor would not result in adverse effects to known submerged cultural resources. Therefore, no submerged cultural resources are expected to be affected. Physical Disturbance and Strike: Physical disturbance and strike stressors resulting from in-water devices, military expended materials, seafloor devices, pile driving, and vibration from sonic booms during training and testing activities would not result in adverse effects to known or unknown submerged cultural resources. Therefore, no submerged cultural resources are expected to be affected. 3.10.1 INTRODUCTION AND METHODS 3.10.1.1 Introduction Submerged cultural resources are found throughout the Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing (AFTT) Study Area. The approach for the assessment of submerged cultural resources includes defining the resource; presenting the regulatory requirements for the identification, evaluation, and treatment within established jurisdictional parameters; establishing the specific resources subtypes in the Study Area; identifying the data used to define the current conditions; and providing the method for impact analysis. Cultural resources are defined as districts, landscapes, sites, structures, objects, and ethnographic resources, as well as other physical evidence of human activities that are considered important to a culture, subculture, or community for scientific, traditional, religious, or other reasons. Cultural resources include archaeological resources, architectural resources, and traditional cultural properties related to pre-contact (prior to European contact) and post-contact periods. Archaeological resources include prehistoric and historic sites and artifacts. Archaeological resources can have a surface component, a subsurface component, or both. Prehistoric resources are physical properties resulting from human activities that predate written records and can include village sites, temporary camps, lithic scatters, roasting pits, hearths, milling features, petroglyphs, rock features, shell mounds, and burials. Historic resources postdate the advent of written records in a region and include building foundations, refuse scatters, wells, cisterns, and privies. Submerged cultural resources include historical shipwrecks and other submerged historical materials, such as sunken airplanes and prehistoric cultural remains. Architectural resources are elements of the built environment consisting of standing buildings or structures from the historic period. These resources include existing buildings, dams, bridges, lighthouses, and forts. Traditional cultural properties are resources associated with beliefs and cultural practices of a living culture, subculture, or community. These beliefs and practices must be rooted in the group’s history and must be important in maintaining the cultural identity of the group. Prehistoric archaeological sites and artifacts, historic and contemporary locations of traditional events, sacred places, landscapes, and resource collection areas, including fishing, hunting, or gathering areas, may be traditional cultural resources. 3.10-1 3.10 Cultural Resources Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing Final EIS/OEIS September 2018 3.10.1.2 Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Cultural Resources Procedures for identifying, evaluating, and treating cultural resources within state territorial waters (within 3 nautical miles [NM] of the coast) and United States (U.S.) territorial waters (within 12 NM of the coast) are contained in a series of federal and state laws and regulations, and agency guidelines. Archaeological, architectural, and cultural (including Native American and Native Hawaiian) resources are protected by a variety of laws and their implementing regulations: the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 as amended in 2006, the Archeological and Historic Preservation Act of 1974, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, the Submerged Lands Act of 1953, the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987, and the Sunken Military Craft Act of 2004. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation further guides treatment of archaeological and architectural resources through the regulations, Protection of Historic Properties (36 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] part 800). The category of “historic properties” is a subset of cultural resources that is defined in the National Historic Preservation Act (54 United States Code [U.S.C.] section 300308) as any prehistoric or historic district, site, building, structure, or object included in, or eligible for inclusion in, the National Register of Historic Places (National Register), including artifacts, records, and material remains related to such a property or resource. Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act currently codified in 54 U.S.C. 306108 requires federal agencies to consider the effects of their actions on cultural resources listed in or eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.