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Vantage to Pomona Heights Chapter 3
<br />230 kV Transmission Line Project FEIS Affected Environment
<br /> PAGE 3-243
<br />3.11 CULTURAL RESOURCES AND NATIVE AMERICAN CONCERNS
<br />As was done in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and Supplemental Draft
<br />Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS), this section describes the existing conditions (affected
<br />environment) and considers issues related to cultural resources along all Action Alternatives presented in
<br />the DEIS and SDEIS, including those raised during scoping. This Final Environmental Impact Statement
<br />(FEIS) section consolidates and builds on the information presented in the January 2013 DEIS as well as
<br />the January 2015 SDEIS and includes references to those documents throughout the text where
<br />appropriate. This FEIS identifies the New Northern Route (NNR) Alternative – Overhead Design Option
<br />as the Environmentally Preferred Alternative and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has selected
<br />the NNR Alternative – Overhead Design Option as the Agency Preferred Alternative.
<br />Cultural resources are prehistoric or historic archaeological sites, districts, buildings, structures, or objects
<br />considered to be important to a culture, subculture, or community for scientific, traditional, religious, or
<br />any other reason. A cultural resource is a definite location of human activity, occupation, or use
<br />identifiable through field inventory (survey), historical documentation, or oral evidence. The term
<br />includes archaeological and architectural sites, structures, or places with important public and scientific
<br />uses and may include definite locations of traditional cultural or religious importance to specified social
<br />or cultural groups. Cultural resources may be, but are not necessarily, eligible for listing in the National
<br />Register of Historic Places (National Register), the nation’s list of historic places worthy of preservation.
<br />For this FEIS, cultural resources have been divided into archaeological resources, architectural resources,
<br />and traditional cultural properties (TCPs).
<br />Archaeological resources are locations where human activity has measurably altered the earth (e.g.,
<br />ditches, mounds, earthworks) or left deposits of physical remains (e.g., stone tools, building foundations,
<br />cairns, bottles, cans). Archaeological resources are often classified as either sites or isolated finds based
<br />on the quantity, density, and type of material present. Generally, isolated finds are one or a few objects
<br />(e.g., an arrowhead, a bottle). Sites are larger than isolated finds and may contain several artifacts to many
<br />thousands of artifacts or features within a clearly defined area.
<br />Architectural resources are standing buildings or structures. Buildings are used for shelter, for example,
<br />houses, churches, stores, schools, and barns. Structures are architectural or engineering features not used
<br />for shelter, such as dams, canals, bridges, and transmission lines.
<br />A TCP is a property that is eligible for inclusion in the National Register because of its association with
<br />cultural practices or beliefs of a living community that are rooted in that community’s history and are
<br />important in maintaining the continuing cultural identity of the community. TCPs may include
<br />petroglyphs, pictographs, graves, and ceremonial features.
<br />3.11.1 Data Sources
<br />For the purpose of this FEIS, the Project study area for the cultural resource analysis included both a 150-
<br />foot wide corridor (75 feet to each side of the Action Alternative route segment centerlines) and a 500-
<br />foot wide corridor (250 feet to either side of the Action Alternative route segment centerlines). A cultural
<br />resource record search for the proposed Vantage to Pomona Heights 230 kilovolt (kV) Transmission Line
<br />Project (Project) was initially conducted in 2010 and 2011 by collecting information on previously
<br />recorded cultural resources and past cultural resource investigations within one mile either side of the
<br />centerlines for each of the Action Alternative route segments. The principal source of data was the
<br />Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) on-line Washington
<br />Information System for Architectural and Archaeological Records Data (WISAARD) database. For the
<br />NNR Alternative, a record search was performed in December 2013 using the WISAARD database.
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