DOE seeks to lock up BLM land

Suzanne Struglinski

Monday, Dec. 29, 2003 | 11:21 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department wants more than 300,000 acres of public land to be removed from drilling or mining for 20 years as it prepares to build a rail line to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site.

The request comes just days after the department announced its preference for construction of a rail line that would begin outside Caliente, 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas, to move nuclear waste to the mountain.

The Bureau of Land Management issued a notice in the Federal Register today regarding the Energy Department request to withdraw 308,600 acres of public land from surface entry and mining for the next 20 years so it can study the land for construction, operation and maintenance of a rail line to Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The area in question includes land in Clark, Esmeralda, Lincoln and Nye counties.

"This latest proposal has the potential to limit hiking and other outdoor activities on more than 300,000 acres in Nevada and in theory, could stop any mining on this vast tract of BLM land," Rep. Shelly Berkley, D-Nev., said. "Those are both important issues that must be raised with both federal agencies. Considering DOE is asking that this land be placed off-limits for decades, I certainly hope they also find the time to examine the environmental impacts of the Yucca Mountain rail route that has now been proposed."

The rail line would not take up all that land but would run somewhere through it once DOE decides what would work best, said Dennis Samuelson, realty specialist with BLM in Nevada.

Before the rail line can progress, DOE needs to issue reports about its possible environmental impact, Samuelson said.

The agency intends to prohibit any surface entry or mining on the land DOE wants withdrawn during the next two years until a final decision is made. BLM is taking public comments on the withdrawal through March 29, 2004. A public meeting is planned, but today's notice said specific time and location information would be made available at a later date.

Bob Halstead, the state's transportation consultant, said this is just another part of the "bad process" DOE has shown on the project.

He said asking for the withdrawal helps eliminate someone seeking a mining permit on the land that could disturb DOE's plans. He also said it is not really clear from what the department has said so far if it will actually decide to use rail shipments or the Caliente line. DOE has just said this is is preference, he said.

Rights-of-way, leases, and permits can be issued for the land as long as they do not conflict with the proposed withdrawal, according to the Federal Register.

BLM spokeswoman Jo Simpson said this morning that it was not clear yet if withdrawal or other permit requests already existed on the acres DOE wants set aside.

Samuelson said the amount of acres requested is not uncommon, especially since Nellis Air Force base has 2.9 million acres withdrawn for its training range. But DOE's request is in a long strip as opposed to a rectangle or regular block.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., is deeply concerned the department is moving forward on this before Nevada's legal cases against the site have even begun, spokesman Adam Mayberry said.

Porter, vice chairman of the House Railroads Subcommittee plans on having oversight hearings on the impacts of the proposed rail line.