NNSA NEWS RELEASE

The National Nuclear Security Administration Los Alamos Field Office has determined there would be no long-term impacts to the floodplain as a result of projects to install a new waterline and fiber optic conduit and cable along NM4.

The field office has issued a statement of finding for two projects by two separate proponents in Los Alamos County. Portions of the project are located on Department of Energy property. One project is the construction and operation of a new water supply line within the right-of-way of New Mexico Highway 4 by Los Alamos County’s Department of Public Utilities. The other project is the installation of a fiber optic conduit and cable within the right-of-way of NM 4 and New Mexico Highway 502 by Pueblo de San Ildefonso.

The two project proponents are working together to install the waterline and the fiber optic cable in the same trench along NM 4 in order to minimize ground disturbance and to take advantage of the opportunity to streamline permitting and construction. The segment of the Pueblo’s fiber optic cable planned for installation along NM 502 would start just east of the Pueblo’s eastern boundary, where it would connect to existing fiber optic infrastructure, and proceed west to the north side of the interchange with NM 4, where it will then cross under NM 502 and go into the County’s waterline trench.

The project activities within the 100-year floodplain include 1) excavation of a trench, 2) installation of 12-inch and 16-inch PVC-coated ductile iron pipe and associated fittings, 3) partial backfilling and compaction, 4) placement of a PVC fiber optic conduit above and to the side of the new pipeline, and 5) final backfilling, compaction, and surface grading of the trench. They also include horizontal drilling beneath some segments of the 100-year floodplain. 

The statement of finding is available at: https://www.energy.gov/nepa/articles/los-alamos-county-waterline-and-san-ildefonso-pueblo-fiber-optic-cable-floodplain-0.