APPENDIX C Cultural Resources Study for Environmental Cleanup and Demolition at Santa Susana Field Laboratory, NASA Areas I and II, Ventura County, California This page intentionally left blank. Appendix C, NASA SSFL EIS for Proposed Demolition and Environmental Cleanup Confidential Cultural Resources Study for Environmental Cleanup and Demolition at Santa Susana Field Laboratory, NASA Areas I and II, Ventura County, California Prepared for National Aeronautics and Space Administration Huntsville, Alabama February 2014 C-1 Appendix C, NASA SSFL EIS for Proposed Demolition and Environmental Cleanup This page intentionally left blank. C-2 Appendix C, NASA SSFL EIS for Proposed Demolition and Environmental Cleanup Cultural Resources Study for Environmental Cleanup and Demolition at Santa Susana Field Laboratory, NASA Areas I and II, Ventura County, California Report Prepared For: National Aeronautics and Space Administration George C. Marshall Space Flight Center Marshall Space Flight Center, AL 35812 Prepared by: CH2M HILL 6 Hutton Centre Drive, Suite 700 Santa Ana, CA 92707 February 2014 National Archeological Database (NADB) Type of Study: Literature Search, Survey, and Evaluation Sites Recorded: Isolates Recorded: None USGS Quadrangle: Calabasas, CA; Acreage: 490 acres Level of Investigation: NEPA and Section 106 Key Words: Simi Valley, NASA, Alfa Test Area, Bravo Test Area, Coca Test Area, Historic Districts, Burro Flats, NEPA, Isolate, prehistoric site, Chumash, Gabrieleño, Tataviam STATEMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY: Due to the sensitive nature of cultural resources described herein, this report is confidential and should be withheld from public distribution, in accordance with43 CFR 7.18[a][1] and Section 304 of the National Historic Preservation Act. C-3 Appendix C, NASA SSFL EIS for Proposed Demolition and Environmental Cleanup This page intentionally left blank. C-4 Appendix C, NASA SSFL EIS for Proposed Demolition and Environmental Cleanup Executive Summary This report provides the results of several phases of work designed to locate and document historic properties within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-administered Liquid Oxygen (LOX) Plant Area I and Area II at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County, California. This study has been prepared in support of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), which requires federal agencies to identify historic properties and take into account the effects of their undertakings on historic properties, as well as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NASA has prepared an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the undertaking, or Proposed Action, that includes the results of this study. Cultural resources include prehistoric and historic archeological sites, districts, and objects; standing historic structures, buildings, districts, and objects; locations of important historic events; and Native American sites and cultural properties such as sites of traditional cultural importance to various groups. 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 800 defines a historic property as any prehistoric or historic district, site, building, structure, or object listed in, or eligible for listing in, the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Under Section 110 and Section 106 of the NHPA, NASA conducted cultural resource inventories of the NASA- administered portion of SSFL in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011. These inventories together include the entirety of the NASA-administered portion of SSFL and some areas outside this area that likely will need to be remediated as a part of this undertaking, covering a total of 198.3 hectares (ha) (490 acres). Previous work consisted of using the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate system to record the locations of the features at the Burro Flats Site with a handheld Trimble global positioning system (GPS) unit, recordation of site (Emmick and Bard, 2008; McClintock, Wilt, and Emmick, 2009), and recordation of in 2010 (Hogan and Tang, 2010). and are being considered potentially eligible for listing in the NRHP for this undertaking. An assessment of the built environment was conducted in 2007 by Archaeological Consultants, Inc., and Weitze Research (ACI and WR). This survey assessed 135 federally owned buildings, structures, and sites within NASA- administered LOX Plant Area I and Area II of SSFL. The results of this investigation identified three historic districts–the Alfa, Bravo, and Coca Test Areas–and nine individually eligible structures within the districts (ACI and WR, 2009). The Alfa, Bravo, and Coca Test Area historic districts are eligible for listing in the NRHP, and within these three historic districts, six test stands and three associated control houses are individually eligible for the NRHP. The California State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) concurred with the eligibility of these three districts and their contributing elements, as well as with the individual eligibility of the nine structures, on May 15, 2008. Correspondence summaries are included in Appendix B. NASA initiated NHPA Section 106 consultation with the California SHPO and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) on June 30, 2011. The initiation letter notified SHPO and ACHP of NASA’s intent to use the NEPA process and documentation to comply with Section 106, in accordance with 36 CFR 800.8. The Area of Potential Effects for this project was developed in consultation with the SHPO in 2011 and 2012. NASA has found that the Proposed Action–demolition of up to 100 percent of structures, soil cleanup to background levels, and groundwater cleanup–would result in an adverse effect on historic properties, as detailed in the effects analysis and findings in the cultural resources subsection of Section 4 of the EIS. Consultation with the SHPO, ACHP, Native Americans, and other consulting parties is ongoing. This consultation will culminate in measures to avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse effects on historic properties that will be formalized in either an agreement document or in the Record of Decision associated with the EIS. A copy of this report will be filed with the South Central Coastal Information Center of the California Historical Resources Information System located at California State University, Fullerton, in accordance with the Office of Historic Preservation’s Information Management program. 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C-6 Appendix C, NASA SSFL EIS for Proposed Demolition and Environmental Cleanup Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................. v Acronyms and Abbreviations .............................................................................................................................. ix 1 Introduction .........................................................................................................................................1-1 1.1 Proposed Action .............................................................................................................................. 1-1 1.2 National Register of Historic Places Eligibility ................................................................................. 1-2 1.3 Area of Potential Effects .................................................................................................................. 1-5 1.4 Sacred Sites ...................................................................................................................................... 1-5 1.5 Traditional Cultural Properties ........................................................................................................ 1-6 1.6 Cultural Flora and Fauna .................................................................................................................. 1-6 2 Setting .................................................................................................................................................2-1 2.1 Environmental Setting ..................................................................................................................... 2-1 2.2 Cultural Context ............................................................................................................................... 2-2 2.2.1 Early Holocene (9,600 cal B.C. to 5,600 cal B.C.) ................................................................ 2-3 2.2.2 Middle Holocene (6,000 cal B.C. to cal A.D. 500) ............................................................... 2-3 2.2.3 Late Holocene (cal A.D. 500 to Historic Contact) ............................................................... 2-4 2.3 Ethnohistory .................................................................................................................................... 2-4 2.3.1 Chumash ............................................................................................................................. 2-5 2.3.2 Fernandeño ......................................................................................................................... 2-5 2.3.3 Tataviam ............................................................................................................................. 2-6 2.4 History .............................................................................................................................................. 2-7 2.4.1