Results of Implementing the Historic Properties Treatment Plan for the Sierrita Pipeline Project, Pima County, Arizona: Volume 2, Data Recovery Investigations

Author(s): Suzanne Griset; S. Jerome Hesse

Year: 2016

Summary

On July 1, 2014, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted Sierrita Gas Pipeline LLC (Sierrita) notice to proceed with the construction of the Sierrita Pipeline Project (the Project), a new natural gas pipeline and appurtenant facilities in Pima County, Arizona, that deliver natural gas from El Paso Natural Gas Company’s existing pipeline system southwest of Tucson to an interconnect point at the U.S.-Mexico border near the town of Sasabe. Concurrent with the construction of the Project was the implementation of a Historic Properties Treatment Plan (HPTP) (Hesse 2014a) for the 25 historic properties (i.e., cultural properties eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places [NRHP]) that had been identified in or within 50 feet of the Project area of potential effects (APE).

Some form of treatment was proposed for all of the historic properties to avoid and minimize the Project’s effects on eligible properties, and to mitigate the adverse effects on eligible properties where avoidance was not feasible. Treatment techniques designed to avoid and/or minimize effects included necking the width of the construction corridor, fencing, construction of the pipeline by boring and installing it beneath sites, construction monitoring, and the implementation of construction safeguards along access roads through sites (“road treatment”). Treatment designed to mitigate adverse effects where avoidance was not feasible involved data recovery excavation. Tribal monitors from the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation assisted archaeological monitors in the implementation of the HPTP.

Unanticipated discoveries during the Project led to the documentation of four new archaeological sites and an extension of the boundaries of a previously recorded archaeological site (AZ DD:6:80 [ASM]) within the APE. The four sites were all determined NRHP eligible and added to the list of sites requiring some form of treatment.

The pipeline was placed in service on October 31, 2014. Monitoring of cleanup and restoration activities along the pipeline right-of-way (ROW) continued until November 6, 2014. Protective fencing along access roads on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR) was removed on February 26, 2015, following the completion of road restoration activities.

This second volume of the results of implementing the Sierrita Pipeline Project HPTP contains the results of data recovery investigations conducted at nine archaeological sites where avoidance was not feasible. The first volume discusses the archaeological monitoring that occurred during project construction.

Cite this Record

Results of Implementing the Historic Properties Treatment Plan for the Sierrita Pipeline Project, Pima County, Arizona: Volume 2, Data Recovery Investigations, 479. Suzanne Griset, S. Jerome Hesse. 2016 ( tDAR id: 446101) ; doi:10.48512/XCV8446101

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Keywords

Culture
Archaic • Historic • Hohokam • Huhugam • Late Archaic • O'odham • Patayan

Material
Basalt • Buffware • Ceramic • Chipped Stone • Core • Fauna • Fire Cracked Rock • Ground Stone • Hammerstone • Human Remains • Macrobotanical • Mano • metate • Obsidian • Plainware • Pollen • Projectile Point • Purple-on-Brown • Purple-on-Red • Quartzite • Red-on-Brown • Red-on-Buff • Redware • Rhyolite • Shell • Tabular Knife

Site Name
AZ AA:15:201 (ASM) • AZ AA:15:206 (ASM) • AZ AA:15:208 (ASM) • AZ AA:15:209 (ASM) • AZ DD:3:179 (ASM) • AZ DD:6:118 (ASM) • AZ DD:6:133 (ASM) • AZ DD:6:77 (ASM)

Site Type
Archaeological Feature • Artifact Scatter • Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex • Domestic Structures • Field House • Inhumation • Lens • Petroglyph • Pit • Pit House / Earth Lodge • Roasting Pit / Oven / Horno • Rock Art • Rock Cluster • Storage Pit

Investigation Types
Archaeological Overview • Data Recovery / Excavation • Historic Background Research • Records Search / Inventory Checking • Research Design / Data Recovery Plan • Site Evaluation / Testing

General
Artifact Analysis • Radiocarbon Dating Analysis

Geographic Keywords
Arizona (State / Territory) • Arizona Upland Subdivision • Pima (County) • Sasabe, AZ • Sonoran Desert

Temporal Keywords
Ceramic Period • Colonial Period • Early Agricultural period • Early Classic Period • Protohistoric • Rillito Phase • Rincon Phase • Sacaton Phase • Tanque Verde Phase

Spatial Coverage

min long: -111.601; min lat: 31.453 ; max long: -111.245; max lat: 32.069 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): SWCA Environmental Consultants

Contributor(s): Sierrita Gas Pipeline, LLC; Karen R. Adams; Regina L. Chapin-Pyritz; Linda M. Gregonis; India Hesse; Mary F. Ownby; Paul M. Rawson; M. Steven Shackley; Susan Smith; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Arizona State Land Department

Project Director(s): S. Jerome Hesse

Prepared By(s): SWCA Environmental Consultants

Submitted To(s): Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Record Identifiers

Arizona Burial Agreement No. (s): 2014-030

State Historic Preservation Office No. (s): SHPO-2012-0465

Arizona State Museum Accession No. (s): 2014-0214

Arizona Antiquities Act Permit No. (s): 2014-100ps

SWCA Project No. (s): 23191.03

FERC Docket No.(s): CP13-74-000; CP13-73-000

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
15-479_OCR_PDFA_Redacted.pdf 91.63mb Feb 22, 2021 2:54:10 PM Public
This file is the redacted version of the resource.
15-479_OCR_PDFA.pdf 93.92mb Feb 1, 2016 May 22, 2018 2:21:35 PM Confidential
This file is the unredacted version of the resource.

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Contact(s): SWCA Environmental Consultants

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