10 Yr Environmental Impact Statement (Includes Relating to Culture)

[some seeing eye]

""The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Black Rock Field Office and Burning Man are pleased to announce the release of the Draft Burning Man Event Special Recreation Permit/Environmental Impact Statement (SRP/EIS). The BLM is accepting comments on the Draft SRP/EIS from March 15, 2019 through April 29, 2019. To comment, please navigate to the Documents & Reports page - https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-off ... eId=139649 - of the project website and click on the "Comment on Document" button located next to the document. The project website is located here online: https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-off ... e880ff6cd8.

If you are unable to comment through the internet interface you can mail comments to: Attn: Mark Hall, Bureau of Land Management, 5100 E Winnemucca Blvd, Winnemucca, NV 89445.

Public meetings are currently being scheduled and are expected to occur on April 8 and 9, 2019. ""

[Token]

So, there are viable options covered by the EIS of:

100K permit.
80K permit.
50K permit.
No permit, get off my lawn.

BTW, the 50K permit is plan B.

It would be spectacular if the BLM Caps the thing at 50K right after the main Ticket sale.

DGS, Low Income and FOMO tickets are already 40K+ so with staff and Glitterati tickets - main sale would be what? 2000 tickets.

I’m rooting for Plan B - don’t quite cancel but slap the BORG down a bit.

That may be a way to start the cultural revolution!

[Token]

Interesting Tidbit:

Invited cooperating agencies that accepted the invitation:

FBI
DHS

I wonder what in the world they are looking to cooperate on.

[MrHedgehog]

The really *fun* stuff is in the Mitigation Measures in Appendix E of Volume 2 of the report.

These proposals would apply whatever size the event is limted to.

Draft Mitigation Measure : PHS-1
At all portals of entry into the Event, beginning 14 days before Labor Day, BRC will be required to contract a BLM-approved, independent, third-party, private security to screen vehicles and participants, vendors and contractors, and staff and volunteers entering the Event. Thirdparty, private security will report Closure Order violations, to include weapons and illegal drugs, directly to law enforcement as violations are observed so that law enforcement can respond. Third-party, private security will provide an Event summary report to the BLM within 30 days of the end of the Event.

Draft Mitigation Measure : PHS-3
BRC will be required to implement physical perimeter barriers (e.g., Jersey barriers and K-rail fence) to reduce the risk of unauthorized entry to the Event. This will be done concurrent with city and perimeter fence construction.

Draft Mitigation Measure : PHS-4
BRC will facilitate all structures over 10 feet to be inspected by qualified and Nevada-certified building inspectors prior to occupancy.

Draft Mitigation Measure : NAT-2 / VIS-1 / WHS-1
To reduce litter and trash in the PLPT Reservation and along SR 447, the proponent must place a sufficient number of dumpsters in the city and along Gate Road before its intersection with Highway 34. This is intended to reduce adverse impacts on the PLPT Reservation and SR 447. These dumpsters must be placed by 12:01a.m. on the Friday before
Labor Day and must be kept in place until Exodus is completed. To prevent overflow, BRC will be required to maintain the dumpsters during the time they are in place.

Draft Mitigation Measure : SPEC-2
Require BRC to reduce the amount of light pollution by banning the use of high-energy lasers and search lights being pointed straight up, and requiring shields on sources of light at night where feasible.

Draft Mitigation Measure : NCA-1
BRC must post a reclamation bond sufficient to remove large art installations and theme camps left behind after Exodus. This bond is intended to remove the risk of unnecessary or undue degradation to the NCA and defray the costs to taxpayers.

[lucky420]

Thanks for the nutshell guys

I did read a lot of it but thanks for posting these bits too

[MrHedgehog]

It would be spectacular if the BLM Caps the thing at 50K right after the main Ticket sale.

It would be absolutely hilarious, wouldn't it?

But I suspect that the option is really in there to appease the folks that are opposed to Burning Man, and to provide a worst-case-scenario negotiating tactic to get the ORG to agree to some of the proposed Mitigation Measures.

Reading the report ... even the BLM doesn't want the event to go away, because they're afraid that people would just turn up anyway and be totally unregulated.

OTOH, I personally read the report as a pretty clear statement that they don't want to increase the population to 100,000.

I'm guessing that we'll end up with an 80,000 cap moving forwards, and have dumpsters on Gate Road during Exodus.

Having private security screen all vehicles for contraband would be an absolute nightmare for traffic flow ... but I'm not sure how the ORG are going to fight back against that one when their own figures show a 250% increase in "Altered State, Influence of Drugs/Alcohol" incidents between 2016 and 2017.

[Ano]

I just spent a few hours going over this report and reading it.

It's very frustrating, and makes me feel like I'll need to take Monday, April 8th off from work to make a multi-hour drive to hopefully comment my distaste with many sections of this proposed SRP.

I'm saving my ammunition for the eventual meeting I'm going to be attending, but wow, some of these proposed mitigation measures would be disastrous for the health of the event. Some of these, like the dedicated sexual assault team, I believe to be great. The mention of JuPlaya requiring an SRP is curious - and based on what I know about some JuPlaya politics in the past few years, I have to wonder.

The most egregious and offensively bad mitigation measures (IMO) are:

1. the exodus dumpsters. This... this would just blow. I feel like it will motivate shitty people to not worry as much about their trash... after all, they can dump it during exodus. I feel like each dumpster would be a solid bitch to clean up for our dedicated resto crew.

2. The additional third party gate security team. This just feels like a slap in the face, and it feels like the BLM really just want to catch people with pot to make more money. Also, this would destroy gate entrance times.

3. A K-rail/Jersey Barrier along the trash fence just feels unneccessary, and in my experience, those things are moopy as fuck... it's concrete... this wouldn't even serve a purpose, as far as I can tell, other than making set-up a pain.

4. Requisite engineering inspections for all structures over ten feet. I'm not saying I'm a fan of janky-ass structures being set up, but I'm also saying that I don't feel like this has ever been a problem and they're creating smoke where there's no fire.

5. "solutions" to mitigate dust events. I mean...

6. Mitigation of light pollution. this just feels seriously persnickety. "Stop the spotlights!"

6a/comment: They really seem to try to justify the playa as a highly trafficked wildlife zone. Are they sure about this?

[BBadger]

Exodus dumpster. Oh that's going to be great for traffic.

"Oh honey, look, we can dump our shit over in that mountain of garbage bags that probably has a dumpster underneath it! Let's pull over!"

But hey, maybe they're betting that most people will just be flying in or taking the bus so it won't really make a difference.

[FIGJAM]

Dumpsters+playa winds...…….what's wrong with this picture?

[Sham]

It's interesting to note that playa area where Burning Man takes place was once the dumping ground for junk cars, appliances and household trash for the locals. It was a party area where thousands of beer bottles and cans were just tossed on the ground. Burning Man was instrumental in cleaning this all up and it appears to be a pristine area. Now, a single stray feather will cause reports to be generated in triplicate and warnings to be sent out.

[Ano]

It's interesting to note that playa area where Burning Man takes place was once the dumping ground for junk cars, appliances and household trash for the locals. It was a party area where thousands of beer bottles and cans were just tossed on the ground. Burning Man was instrumental in cleaning this all up and it appears to be a pristine area. Now, a single stray feather will cause reports to be generated in triplicate and warnings to be sent out.

Now hang on a second - did you see those photos of those historical trails at the bottom of the report!? Those gigantic empty swaths of playa with indiscernible trail markings are IMPORTANT for local history.

Not to mention - migratory birds, and, uh... birds! Fairy shrimp. It's a very carefully-balanced ecology and... birds!

And yet, they're fine with approving a cyanide heap leach facility and open pit mine, just a few hundred miles south:

https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-a ... rl-project

It's almost as if they have an agenda.

[ryfi]

It's almost as if they have an agenda.

Yeah, at the minimum it's incredibly hypocritical! It really gets under my skin when the same BLM will turn around and sell land to fracking interests in order to make some money (over 3 million actually, https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-u ... -304037100).

Environmental impacts my ass.

[Simon of the Playa]

it’ll be dry in fly.

high and dry.

“if you teach someone to burn, they fish for life”

[Lonesomebri]

The reason for the K-rail, Jersey barrier proposal- In 2018, a vehicle drove through the plastic trash fence and through the walk-in camping section of the city, entering the event without authorization and at great public safety risk. The vehicle was never located by BRC or law enforcement after it gained entry to the event.
https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-off ... _Event.pdf

Where was perimeter?!?!?!?!
Out at the trash fence chilling in their a.c., ogling The Last Bar on Earth, zooming around and kicking up dust (another issue in the report) while chaos reigned on our southern border!!! Now we pay the price.

PSX_20190320_211009.jpg (23.29 KiB) Viewed 8442 times

[Ano]

The health and safety report is pretty damning of Burning Man, in general... but they editorialize the fuck out of the incidents.

They are clearly pumping their numbers if they're comparing shit to EDC, because at EDC, the cops there just don't give a rats ass about what you do. I've been to EDC in LV, it's a free-for-all and the police presence there isn't really on the hunt for anything... of course their drug arrests would be significantly lower when compared to an event where BLM actively walk through dance floors with flash lights trying to catch folks, and line up five cars at major parties with officers using night vision/binoculars to catch people.

They have the audacity to complain about staffing issues as well - I'd kindly invite less feds to be out there.

[BBadger]

Let's kill two birds with one stone and erect a 10-mile fence made of dumpsters for a true trash fence.

[Sham]

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2019/03/ ... 226944002/

[Simon of the Playa]

[Token]

I find it very funny that here and elsewhere in the internetverse folks get all bent out of shape on the trash bins and jersey barriers ...

... two of the items that will truly have fuck-all zero impact on anyone’s burn. Really, think about it.

But the real fucked up stuff like licensed state inspectors for any structure over 10 feet high ... the recovery fees ... the fact that a single ranger-Rick type can decide to issue a 50K cap on an event that already sold 70K tickets ...

Fan-fucking-tastic!!!

Lucky that they spell out the vast monies spent in NV and the local community.

[some seeing eye]

I would hazard a wild ass guess that the BLM wanted to be extra accommodating to the other governmental organizations and put their dream wish list requests in the document. The Pershing LEO either wants a lot more money or to end the event entirely. Obviously the NV state patrol and all the towns are sick of all the stupid burners dumping their trash. The three letter agencies all would love an all expense paid vacation at the event and having the opportunity to test their spy tools.

Meanwhile stupid burners are entirely responsible for civil unrest, someone successfully rushing the trash fence (and GPE not preventing it,) the need for rape kits, getting caught with drugs and weapons, overloading and breaking a structure, and trash in the neighbor communities, and even DPW/staff/department volunteers setting off fireworks when they were not supposed to do so.

That is why I have been consistently in favor of virgins joining experienced camps and getting oriented in person, face to face before the event.

[some seeing eye]

93176B2E-7F45-4B3B-92B5-183B4304B066.jpeg

It would be cool if the BLM decided to sell that area to the BMORG, especially if the county line was adjusted to shift jurisdiction to Washoe County away from our good friends, Pershing.

[Ratty]

Token, Thank you for pointing out the importance of data. Census doesn't get enough respect on or off the playa.

[Token]

93176B2E-7F45-4B3B-92B5-183B4304B066.jpeg

It would be cool if the BLM decided to sell that area to the BMORG, especially if the county line was adjusted to shift jurisdiction to Washoe County away from our good friends, Pershing.

I do believe Pershing tabled that proposal after the dust settled on 2018.

There is precedent for county line adjustments in Pershing.

After all, there are ~ 5000 residents in Pershing county if you don’t count inmates in the prison.

[Ano]

The symposium this weekend was interesting, but most interesting to me was the bit where they talked about the EIS.

I wish the Borg made this more clear, but I believe it was Playground who straight-up said that this is a "defcon whatever the highest number is" emergency for the overall health of the event. I urge anyone here who has not commented on the EIS, to comment on the EIS, or to plan on showing up on April 8th in Reno or April 9th in Lovelock, or to e-mail your substantive comments to:

[email protected]

with a cc to:

[email protected]

They called this an existential threat. The whole weekend was great, and the event has a lot of cultural threats, but this is the one that could permanently alter the event to a point of destroying it.

[Simon of the Playa]

i think the “existential threat” extends far past the playa, but thats a different story we can talk about later.


just remember folks, wherever we end up, learn from the mistakes of others.

PACK ALL OF THE SNACKS.

[Token]

Just for reference, here is the EIS from 2012 that was extended through last year.

https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-off ... nal_EA.pdf

[Sham]

Just for reference, here is the EIS from 2012 that was extended through last year.

https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-off ... nal_EA.pdf

343 pages. Ouch! Can you give us the 2 page William Barr synopsis.

[Ano]

Just for reference, here is the EIS from 2012 that was extended through last year.

https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-off ... nal_EA.pdf

343 pages. Ouch! Can you give us the 2 page William Barr synopsis.

Burning Man is an event where people walk around naked, recklessly speed one to three miles per hour over the limit, recklessly drive one to three miles per hour than the speed limit, and gather large piles of toxic wood to burn in front of crowds of tens of thousands of people.

[Simon of the Playa]

343 pages. Ouch! Can you give us the 2 page William Barr synopsis.

It’s hot, but no one ever goes naked though, ever. i swear. promise. pinky swear.

case closed.

NEVER NUDE WINS!!!

[Luigi]

From the BLM site: (will be interesting the see what 'open house' means):

PUBLIC MEETING DATES:
- Monday, 04/08/2019: Nugget Casino Resort, Cascade 3 Room, Second Floor, 1100 Nugget Avenue Sparks, NV 89431
- Tuesday, 04/09/2019: Pershing County Community Center, Seven Troughs Room, 820 6th St, Lovelock, NV 89419

MEETING TIMES: 5:00pm – 8:00pm

MEETING AGENDA:
- Open House from 5:00pm-5:30pm and 6:15pm-8:00pm
- BLM/Burning Man presentations from 5:30pm-6:15pm

The public is encouraged to review the Draft SRP/EIS and provide comments, via the BLM ePlanning website, during the Public Comment Period, ending April 29, 2019.