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<br />The environmental quality section of the contract specifications will include <br />specific guidelines for the protection of the environment including soils, <br />vegetation and landscape, air, light, and noise pollution, hazardous waste <br />disposal and protection of any unearthed cultural resources. <br /> <br />28. Ccmrent: <br /> <br />1. Page 21: Would the OCR allow continued public access to the Federal lands <br />near the existing private rafting take-out location? Recreation use conflicts <br />could occur during construction. How would they be handled? <br /> <br />Response: <br /> <br />The established take-out point for rafters is not on public land, and no <br />restriction would be placed on it. Reclamation would restrict public use of its <br />land during construction and testing of the test facility. <br /> <br />29. Ccmnent: <br /> <br />l. Page 23, 24: The proposed well site powerline, pipeline, and road are <br />within a section of the river corridor qualifying and reccmrended to Congress as <br />wild. Section 2(b)(l) of the wild and Scenic Rivers Act (attached) states that <br />"rivers reccmrended as wild rivers are those rivers or sections free of <br />impounanents, generally inaccessible except by trial, with watersheds or <br />shorelines essentially primitive and water unpolluted, and representing vestiges <br />of pr imi ti ve l\nErica." The area of the proposed action wi thin the reccmrended <br />wild section still possesses these qua li ties. Section 12 (a) of the same Act <br />(attached) directs the Secretary of the Interior and Federal agencies to review <br />plans and policies affecting lands under their jurisdiction which include, <br />border, or are adjacent to potential wild rivers in order to determine what <br />actions should be taken to protect such rivers during the period they are being <br />considered for potential addition to the National wild and Scenic Rivers system, <br />giving particular attention to road construction, timber harvesting, etc., and <br />similar activities which might be contrary to the purposes of the wild and <br />Scenic Rivers Act. ELM's latest policy (attached) for management of Federal <br />lands in a reccmrended wild and scenic corridor requires that special <br />consideration be given to management decisions affecting the subject corridor. <br />The protective withdrawal for the section of the Dolores River reccmrended to <br />Congress for designation expired in 1981. However, these proposed improvements <br />on Federal lands in and adjacent to this subject corridor still require analysis <br />and planning to ensure that potential wild river values are present if and when <br />Congress makes a decision on the reccmrendations regarding inclusion of this <br />section of the Dolores River into the wild and Scenic Rivers System. The ~ <br />needs to include more data so a determination can be made as to how those values <br />would be impacted or whether they would be present when Congress is ready to <br />decide. <br /> <br />Response: <br /> <br />As stated in this ccmrent, the protective status of this segment of the river <br />expired in 1981, but Reclamation is planning to keep impacts to the river <br />corridor to a minimum during the proposed test. The proposed test well would be <br />located 0.2 mile wi thin this corridor on a previously disturbed area. A well <br /> <br />32 <br /> <br />COG07i <br />