Notice of Availability of Abbreviated Final Environmental Impact Statement

National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Department of the Interior, designated lead agency; Bureau of Land Management (BLM), designated cooperating agency.

Notice of availability of an abbreviated final environmental impact statement for the proposed AT&T Corporation P140 Coaxial Cable Removal Project, Socorro County New Mexico, Clark County Nevada, and Kern and San Bernardino Counties California.

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Pursuant to Section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, the National Park Service announces the availability of an abbreviated final environmental impact statement (FEIS) for the P140 Cable Removal Project, Socorro, New Mexico, to Mojave, California. The draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the proposal was on public review for more than 60 days from December 29, 1997 to March 27, 1998. The abbreviated final document includes responses to public comments on the DEIS and factual corrections to the DEIS. In 1996 AT&T approached the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) concerning a proposal to remove 220 miles of their P140 cable system that no longer supports their current fiber optic network. The proposed project involved the removal of portions of a telecommunications system traversing 7.7 miles in New Mexico, 7.4 miles in Nevada, and 205.2 miles in California.

The P140 system includes buried coaxial cable, repeater huts, manholes, marker posts, and an access corridor. In addition, AT&T proposed to relinquish associated rights-of-way easements, in whole or in part, wherever cable and equipment were removed. As jurisdictional agencies of federal lands crossed by the project, the NPS and the BLM are responsible for determining terms and conditions of any removal activity and rehabilitation actions to promote restoration of the land. In March 1997 DOI determined to prepare a non-delegated environmental impact statement. The abbreviated FEIS describes and analyzes four alternatives in response to AT&T's request to remove cable and to terminate the associated rights-of-way. The Proposed Action, and two additional action alternatives have been developed to reduce or avoid adverse effects on desert vegetation, wilderness, the desert tortoise and recreational access. The No Action alternative is included as a baseline for comparison of the action alternatives. To varying degrees, all action alternatives include cable and structure removal along with rehabilitation of the access corridor and repeater hut sites. Alternative A is the Proposed Action and includes the removal of 174.5 miles of cable, repeater huts and manholes along 220 miles of the right-of-way, and marker posts along 174.2 miles. In addition, the proposed action suggests rehabilitation actions to promote revegetation and habitat recovery that include the elimination of 39.8 miles of the access corridor and 4 miles of dual track. Alternative B was developed to protect critical habitat of the desert tortoise on federal lands. Cable would not be removed from these areas, and more of the access corridor within critical habitat would be eliminated. Cable would be removed along 113.7 miles outside of critical habitat on federal lands, and repeater huts and manholes would be removed along 174.7 miles. Rehabilitation actions include eliminating 51.6 miles of the access corridor and 4 miles of dual track. Alternative C would minimize construction-related impacts on desert vegetation and the desert tortoise on federal lands. Cable would not be removed from federal lands and the access corridor would be eliminated in wilderness areas only. Cable would be removed along 72.3 miles of primarily state and private lands. Repeater huts and manholes would be removed along 220 miles, and marker posts would be removed along 174.7 miles. The elimination and rehabilitation of 5.4 miles of the access corridor and 4 miles of dual tract also would be included in alternative C. For all action alternatives, cable removal activities would result in long-term (20-50 years) adverse affects on desert vegetation, animal species of concern, soil productivity, recreation, and visual aesthetics, but to varying degrees. Removal and rehabilitation activities also would result in temporary adverse affects on air quality and noise due to construction-related activities. Rehabilitation actions would have a permanent beneficial impact on desert vegetation and the desert tortoise. Elimination of portions of the access corridor in the Proposed Action would have a significant impact on recreational access to open desert land, but would not eliminate access to any designated recreational site. Due to elimination of additional segments of the access corridor, Alternative B would eliminate access to several designated recreational sites.

Joan DeGraff, National Park Service, Denver Service Center, PO. Box 25287, Denver, CO, 80225-0287.