ML25008A048
| ML25008A048 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Diablo Canyon  |
| Issue date: | 12/13/2024 |
| From: | Gibbons T Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP, Yak Tityu Tityu Yak Tilhini Northern Chumash Tribe |
| To: | Kimberly Conway Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Office of Administration |
| References | |
| NRC-2023-0192, 89FR87433 00019, NUREG-1437 | |
| Download: ML25008A048 (1) | |
Text
PUBLIC SUBMISSION As of: 1/7/25, 4:02 PM Received: December 13, 2024 Status: Pending_Post Tracking No. m4n-fvvz-tfud Comments Due: December 16, 2024 Submission Type: Web Docket: NRC-2023-0192 Pacific Gas and Electric Company; Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, Units 1 and 2 Comment On: NRC-2023-0192-0013 Pacific Gas and Electric Company; Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, Units 1 and 2; Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement Document: NRC-2023-0192-DRAFT-0028 Comment on FR Doc # 2024-25444 Submitter Information Email:gibbons@smwlaw.com Government Agency Type:Tribal Government Agency:yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribe (ytt Tribe)
General Comment Please find attached comments on behalf of the yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribe (ytt Tribe) regarding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement [NUREG-1437, Supplement 62, draft].
Attachments ytt Tribe's comments re NRC's Diablo Canyon DSEIS _NUREG-1437_ Supplement 62_
draft_(1861620.1) 1/7/25, 4:02 PM blob:https://www.fdms.gov/97bbcede-1561-4233-990b-93bb8d76c2a8 blob:https://www.fdms.gov/97bbcede-1561-4233-990b-93bb8d76c2a8 1/1 SUNSI Review Complete Template=ADM-013 E-RIDS=ADM-03 ADD: Kim Conway, Antoinette Walker-Smith, Mary Neely Comment (19)
Publication Date:
11/1/2024 Citation: 89 FR 87433
December 13, 2024 Via Electronic Submission Kim Conway U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards Mailstop T-4 B72 Washington, CD 20555-0001 Email: Kimberly.Conway@nrc.gov Re:
Comments of the yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribe re the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Pacific Gas and Electric Companys Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, Units 1 and 2 [Docket No. NRC-2023-0192; NUREG-1437, Supplemental 62, draft]
To Whom It May Concern:
Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP submits these scoping comments on behalf of the yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribe (ytt Tribe) and the ytt Northern Chumash Nonprofit (together, ytt) regarding the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRC) Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS) to evaluate the environmental impacts for an application to renew Facility Operating License Nos. DPR-80 and DPR-82, which authorize Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to operate Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant (DCPP), Units 1 and 2 (Project). (See 10 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] § 51.28(a)(5).)
As ytt noted in its February 2024 scoping comments on the EIS, the NRCs consideration of a Diablo Canyon license renewal includes analysis of the Projects environmental consequences under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (42 U.S.C. §§ 4321 et seq.; 10 CFR § 51.29(a)(2); 40 CFR § 1502.16(a)(8)) and identification of any adverse effects on historical or culturally significant sites under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) (16 U.S.C. § 470 et seq.). ytt has repeatedly
December 13, 2024 Page 2 attended in-person meetings with NRC staff to discuss the Tribes concerns regarding NRCs environmental review of this license renewal and appropriate treatment of cultural resources under Section 106, and appreciates the NRCs willingness to engage in these conversations. As the lineal descendants of the ancestral Chumash villagers who lived on what are now called the Diablo Lands, the ytt Tribes input must be recognized and prioritized in the NRCs analysis and decisionmaking. ytt provides the following comments on the DSEIS.
I.
Corrections to Historic and Cultural Resource Descriptions In Attachment A to this letter, ytt provides recommended revisions to the Historic and Cultural Resources descriptions in the DSEIS. Most of these edits, which appear in strikethroughs and red font, provide correction regarding appropriate tribal names, the relationship of ytts Northern (tiłhini) Chumash ancestors to the Project site, and features within the Project area. In addition to these redline edits, ytt has three additional comments:
- In the second paragraph of Section 3.9.1.8 (Historic Period (1820s to Present)),
the DSEIS states, It is important to note that in some instances, the Northern Chumash are referred to as the Obispeno, which denotes the groups association with the San Luis Obispo de Tolosa mission. Descendants consider the term derogatory, preferring to use yak tityu tityu instead. As Attachment A explains, the second sentence in this quoted language should say preferring to use yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini instead. With that correction, ytt further asks that NRC move this explanation to Section 3.9.1.7 (Post-Contact/Ethnographic Period), where the term Obispeno is used for the first time in a historic context. After explaining the relationship between these terms at the outset of Section 3.9 (Historic and Cultural Resources), the NRC should use the preferred term tiłhini except where the DSEIS refers to past archaeological or ethnographic studies that utilize the term Obispeno. Attachment A gives several examples of this correction.
- Section 3.9.2 (Historic and Cultural Resources at Diablo Canyon) mentions Morro Rock as being the location of the Solstice Ceremony, but Morro Rock is not in the Project area and is not relevant to the DSEIS analysis. ytt strongly recommends that the NRC remove this reference from the document. If NRC declines to do so, Attachment A provides suggested edits to at least make the reference more accurate.
December 13, 2024 Page 3
- Section 3.9.3 (Procedures and Integrated Cultural Resources Management Plan) references the 1980 Archaeological Resources Management Plan, which was developed for the avoidance and protection of site SLO-2 during the initial licensing for the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. This Plan must be updated based on current information regarding the appropriate lineal descendant tribe for the Project area, which is the yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribe.
As the DSEIS acknowledges, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History performed a genealogical study in 2020 to identify descendants of Northern Chumash people who belonged to rancherías (native villages) that once existed in the Diablo Canyon Lands area. DSEIS at 3-150. The ethnographic study determined that the YTT had the strongest case for cultural affiliation with the Diablo Canyon LandsMembers of the YTT could not only trace their ancestry back to one of the five rancherías, but could also demonstrate continuity and identity as a Northern Chumash community that has been in the San Luis Obispo area from colonial times to the present day. Id.
Section 106, which the NRC seeks to satisfy through its NEPA process, requires an agency to consult with the tribe that attach[es] religious and cultural significance to affected historic properties. 36 C.F.R. § 800.8(c)(1)(iii). Here, as the true people and lineal descendants of the ancestral Northern (tiłhini) Chumash villagers within what are now known as the Diablo Canyon Lands, the ytt Tribe must be recognized as such in the 1980 ARMP governing continued cultural resource compliance on the site and must be consulted in the event of new cultural resource discoveries, decisions, and treatments. Similarly, if NRC follows the California State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPO) recommendations and requires PG&E to develop a Programmatic Agreement to address future cultural resource issues, PG&E must enter that Programmatic Agreement with ytt as the appropriate tribe for cultural resource consultation purposes. See DSEIS at 3-152.
II.
Corrections to Historic and Cultural Resource Findings On a similar note, the DSEISs Section 3.9.4.2 regarding its Historic and Cultural Resource Findings should be revised to state that while no new construction or modifications are expected to occur from a license renewal, the agency has made new findings regarding the true people and appropriate lineal descendant tribe for the Diablo Canyon Lands. As the NRC acknowledges (DSEIS at 3-150 to -151), the 2020 Johnson Report provides definitive evidence that ytt is the appropriate culturally affiliated descendant tribe to whom deference should be given with regard to cultural resources
December 13, 2024 Page 4 within the Project site. This position should be made explicit in NRCs Findings section as well.
III.
Recognition of Faunal Tribal Cultural Resources The SDEIS includes a discussion of the Projects potential impacts on the federally endangered black abalone, ultimately concluding that the license renewal is not likely to adversely affect the species or adversely modify critical black abalone habitat.
See DSEIS at xxiv (Table ES-1). While ytt understands the NRCs justification for reaching these conclusions, the Tribe urges the agency to take a broad view of the species not just from a biological perspective, but also as a tribal cultural resource.
The Northern (tiłhini) Chumash people have a profound cultural relationship with tspete, known in English as the abalone. ytts members hold memories of our relatives diving and collecting abalone, pounding the meat to eat, and leaving a tall mound of abalone shells in the backyard. ytts foodways are medicine for our bodies; they give us health, strength, and life. After thousands of years, our bodies and DNA are adapted to this local diet, evolving to require it for optimal physical and spiritual health. Not only does abalone provide a traditional food source, but it also represents a richness and presence of certain lifea specific terrain and habitat that goes hand-in-hand with abalone. Where there is abalone, ytts people have found kelp for tools; eelgrass for clothing; seaweed and sea vegetables for food; muscles, sea urchins, and crabs for food; fish, sharks, otters and seal lions for food, oil, clothing, furniture, tools; olivella snails to manufacture shell money beads for trade; birds for food, musical instruments, and ceremony; and rocks for tools and places for prayer.
The abalone shell continues to be used by ytts members in many ways, including beads, pendants, buttons and ornaments for necklaces, earrings, hair pieces, bags, baskets, boats, tools, furniture, game pieces, and more. Abalone have long been found and are still used in association with burials, prayer, and ceremony. Abalone has been gifted and traded in our homeland with inland villages, and to neighboring tribes around us, and also far away to tribes in the mountains. This network shows the relationships of our kinship groups and traditional commerce train routes.
Over time, human activities have had a tremendous negative impact on the abalone population and its habitat. As the original land stewards of this coastline, ytt has an innate responsibility to restore, revitalize, and protect our unique and diverse ecosystems for a healthy future on land and in the water. We are committed to restoring our relationship to our ancestral homeland gathering places and healing through well-
December 13, 2024 Page 5 balanced land management plans that prioritize and implement our traditional eco-cultural knowledge and practices. For these reasons, ytt requests that the NRC revise its DSEIS to take a more holistic view of the black abalone that includes consideration of this species as a tribal cultural resource. ytt further asks that where black abalone stewardship and management processes currently exist, the NRC, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and PG&E involve ytt and incorporate the Tribes traditional ecological knowledge to better protect this sensitive and invaluable species.
IV.
Revisions to Recommendations At the end of the DSEIS, the NRC recommends that the adverse environmental impacts of [License Renewal] for Diablo Canyon are not great that preserving the option of LR for energy-planning decision-makers would be unreasonable. DSEIS at 4-1. The NRC should revise this recommendation to be contingent on PG&E updating its existing Archaeological Resources Management Plan in partnership with the ytt Tribe, who are the documented descendants of the indigenous people from the Project area. Moving forward with license renewal is only reasonable if the agency and applicant acknowledge and incorporate the latest information about the Project site, including the tribal and cultural findings from the 2020 Johnson Report. Though the license renewal itself may not alter Project operation or require construction, future actionssuch as independent spent fuel storage installationcould involve additional impacts on tribal and cultural resources. For this reason, and because the 1980 Plan was created in response to PG&Es initial license application, the NRC should use this license renewal opportunity to require that the Archaeological Resources Management Plan be appropriately updated to name ytt as the lineal descendant tribe.
Relatedly, ytt also encourages the NRC to require PG&E to undertake additional cultural resource surveying at the site in partnership with ytt to promote additional understanding of this culturally sensitive area.
V.
Conclusion The ytt Tribe appreciates the NRCs efforts thus far to engage in meaningful discussion about the highly sensitive and plentiful historic and cultural resources located in ytts ancestral territory within the Diablo Lands, and looks forward to continuing those discussions. Please also provide ytt with written responses to these comments so that the Tribe can better understand how the NRC has revised its EIS analysis in response to the Tribes input.
December 13, 2024 Page 6 Very truly yours, SHUTE, MIHALY & WEINBERGER LLP Tori Gibbons
ATTACHMENT A
ytt Tribe Recommended Revisions to Diablo Canyon Power Plant Operation Extension SEIS Presented to Nuclear Regulatory Commission December 13, 2024 3.9 Historic and Cultural Resources 22 3.9.1.7 Post-Contact/Ethnographic Period (AD 1769-1820s) 23 The project area is within the traditional homelands of the Chumash, specifically the Northern 24 (Obispeno) (tilhini) Chumash. At the time of contact, they were one of the most populous and socially 25 complex indigenous groups in California. Their traditional territory ranged from the Pacific Coast 26 west to the Coast Range east and from the Santa Maria River south to Point Estero Ragged Point, north of 27 Diablo Canyon. The Northern (tilhini) Chumash appeared to have smaller population densities in 28 comparison to other Chumash in the region. Leadership responsibilities were inherited, in some 29 cases, chiefs ruled over several villages. Ethnographic work from the early 1900s recorded at 30 least six Chumash dialects (Obispeno tilhini, Ineseno, Barbareno, Ventureno, Purisimeno, Ysleno),
31 each corresponding to a regionally based group (NARA 2019-TN10278, Mills and Brickfield 32 1986-TN10279).
33 During the Post-Contact/Ethnographic Period, the Chumash were non-agrarian and relied on 34 fishing, hunting, and gathering for their sustenance. As described in previous sections, much of 35 their subsistence was based on marine resources but also included acorns and other nuts as 36 staples. The Chumash participated in the regional trading network, supplying materials such as 37 univalve Columella ornaments, steatite vessels, wooden dishes, shell beads, asphaltum, dried 38 fish, and sea otter furs to indigenous groups north and inland. In return, they received goods 39 such as obsidian and beads (Enright et al. 2021-TN10293).
40 Many of the Villages dating to the Late Period are tilhini Chumash villages. Johnson (2020-TN10045) 41 conducted an ethnographic and genealogical study of the Diablo Canyon area, aiming to identify 42 descendants of Northern (tilhini) Chumash people who belonged to rancherias (native villages) that 43 were in the Diablo Canyon Lands area. Records determined that at least five rancherias existed 44 between Avila Beach and Montana de Oro State Park, north of the Diablo Canyon site 3.9.1.8 Historic Period (1820s to present 38 The establishment of San Antonio de Padua (1771), San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (1772), and 39 San Miguel Arcángel (1797) in the San Luis Obispo area significantly disrupted the tilhini Chumashs 40 social, economic, and political structure (Price and Clark 2019-TN10294). Most Chumash 41 eventually succumbed to the Spanish mission system way, but others refused and escaped 42 further inland, finding refuge with other Tribes. It is important to note that in some 43 instances, the Northern tilhini Chumash are referred to as the Obispeno, which denotes the 44 groups association with the San Luis Obispo de Tolosa mission. Descendants consider the 45 term derogatory, preferring to use yak titu titu yak tilhini instead.
3.9.2 Historic and Cultural Resources at Diablo Canyon 1
The Diablo Canyon area is considered sacred to the Northern tilhini Chumash. The marine and 2
terrestrial cultural resources within and beyond the Diablo Canyon area are direct evidence of 3
Chumash lifeways and are considered TCPs to the Tribes. For the yak titu titu yak tiłhini
4 (YTT), Pecho Coast is the home of their ancestors villages, and the lands are still used today 5
as prayer sites and a gathering location for resource procurement for making basketry and 6
regalia. For many California Tribes the Santa Ynez, Morro Rock is the location of their Solstice Ceremony 7
(ML24108A054; Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians 2024-TN10281).
3.9.3 Procedures and Integrated Cultural Resources Management Plan 28 TN4845) compliance may apply. PG&E complies with State public resources codes that 29 administer next steps, including the identification of the Most Likely Actual Descendant. The Most 30 Likely Actual Descendant and landowner determine the desired disposition of any human remains.
31 As part of the initial licenses for operation, the NRC required PG&E to develop a management 32 plan for the avoidance and protection of site SLO-2. The license condition also stipulated the 33 continued access of Diablo Canyon Lands to the Northern tilhini Chumash for cultural and religious 34 activities. In response, PG&E developed the 1980 Archaeological Resources Management Plan 1861594.1