The City of White Bird, located in Idaho County, is preparing to rebuild and update the city’s wastewater collection system. The collection system will include prioritized improvements, with additional improvements to be completed if the budget allows. The project area includes 5,800 linear feet of collection system pipeline to replace existing pipeline and 22 manholes. Anticipated impacts include re-excavation of the trenches of existing pipeline and manhole locations. The project will be partly funded by the United State Department of Agriculture Rural Development (USDA-RD) program. Since USDA-RD funding is a federal source, the city must meet the requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and consider the impacts to any potential historic properties prior to ground disturbing activities. To that end, the City of White Bird retained Plateau Archaeological Investigations to conduct the cultural resource investigations of the APE.
Pre-field research consisted of the review of known archaeological resources within a 1.0-mi. (1.6-km) radius of the Project Area as inventoried at the Idaho State Historical Society (ISHS) at the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) in Boise, Idaho. This search revealed 28 previously recorded archaeological resources and one archaeological district within the review area.
The pedestrian survey and subsurface investigations for the White Bird Water System Project resulted in the identification of historic-era artifacts, but these items were observed in a disturbed matrix (redeposited fill from the original water system installation) and were not formally recorded. The entire Project Area has been previously disturbed and a majority of the Project Area is paved over. With the existence of three Nez Perce village sites within, or near, the City of White Bird, there is the possibility of encountering intact cultural deposits during implementation of the project. Plateau recommends that the City of White Bird establish a policy for the inadvertent discovery of both intact and previously disturbed cultural materials, and provide for archaeological monitoring of sewer line and manhole replacement for 30-50% of the Project Area.
Location: Idaho County, Idaho
