[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 126 (Friday, June 29, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38781-38782]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-15979]
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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Department of the Navy
Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for
the Proposed Naval Base Coronado Coastal Campus and To Announce Public
Scoping Meetings
AGENCY: Department of the Navy, DoD.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: Pursuant to Section 102(2)(c) of the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as implemented by the Council on
Environmental Quality Regulations, the Department of the Navy (DoN)
announces its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
to evaluate the potential environmental effects of developing an
academic campus on Naval Base Coronado (NBC) to support the current and
future operational readiness of personnel with the Naval Special
Warfare Command (NSWC). The proposed campus would include a mix of
instructional and administrative facilities that would provide for
indoor classroom and tactical training instruction, and equipment use,
maintenance, and storage. Specific proposed actions within the Coastal
Campus proposal are: (1) Evaluation of current land use and available
facilities; (2) augmentation by design and construction of new
facilities to support logistics, equipment use and maintenance
training, classroom and tactical skills instruction, storage, and
administration; and, (3) design and build of related site improvements
that may include upgraded utilities, fencing, roads, and parking. An
EIS is considered the appropriate document for comprehensively
analyzing the potential environmental impacts of implementing this
proposed action.
Dates and Addresses: DoN is initiating a 30-day public scoping
process to identify community interests and specific issues to be
addressed in the EIS. This public scoping process starts with the
publication of this Notice of Intent (NOI). Two public scoping meetings
will be held to receive oral and/or written comments on issues to be
addressed in the EIS:
1. Tuesday, July 17, 2012, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Marina Vista
Community Center, 1075 Eighth Street, Imperial Beach, California,
91932.
2. Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Winn Room,
Coronado Public Library, 640 Orange Avenue, Coronado, California,
92118.
Additional information concerning meeting times and locations is
available on the EIS Web site at www.nbccoastalcampuseis.com. Public
scoping meeting dates, times, and locations are also being announced in
the local news media, including a local Spanish language newspaper.
Public scoping meetings will include open house sessions, with
information stations staffed by the DoN representatives. Comments, both
written and oral, will be collected at each of the two public scoping
meetings, and written comments may also be made electronically on the
project Web site. Spanish translation will be available at the public
meetings and the project Web site accommodates Spanish language users.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Naval Base Coronado Coastal Campus EIS
Project Manager, Attn: Ms. Teresa Bresler, 2730 McKean Street, Bldg
291, San Diego, California 92136.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NSWC is the maritime component of United
States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). Based at NAB Coronado,
California, NSWC's mission is to organize, train, man, equip, educate,
sustain, maintain combat readiness, and deploy Naval Special Warfare
(NSW) forces to carry out special operations missions worldwide. NSW
forces operate independently or in conjunction with other special
operations forces (SOF), joint forces, allied units, and coalition
forces.
NSWC currently conducts administrative and extensive logistics
support, equipment use and maintenance training and classroom and
tactical skills instruction on the Silver Strand Training Complex-North
(SSTC-N) and Silver Strand Training Complex South (SSTC-S), Naval
Amphibious Base (NAB) Coronado, Naval Air Station North Island (NASNI),
and Naval Outlying Landing Field Imperial Beach (NOLFIB), and Camp
Michael Monsoor. Although all of the facilities currently used by NSWC
are located on components of NBC, they are over-utilized as well as
widely dispersed and not conveniently co-located.
To support Congressionally-mandated growth of NSWC and to meet its
current and anticipated mission requirements, the DoN is proposing a
Coastal Campus at NBC. The proposed Coastal Campus would support future
operational readiness by augmenting available NSWC facilities and
reducing fragmentation and space deficiencies, while providing an
integrated campus that accommodates primacy and privacy,
characteristics of learning required for the development of these skill
sets.
The proposed Coastal Campus would augment the current facilities
used by NSWC. Specific proposed actions within the Coastal Campus
proposal are as follows.
(1) Evaluation of current land use and available facilities.
(2) Augmentation by design and construction of new facilities to
support logistics, equipment use and maintenance training, classroom
and tactical skills instruction, storage, and administration.
(3) Design and build of related site improvements that may
including utilities, fencing, roads, and parking. Due to the functional
linkages and the geographic proximity of the components, the proposed
Coastal Campus could be sited at SSTC-S, SSTC-N including NAB Coronado,
NASNI, or NOLFIB, or a combination of these locations, all within the
footprint of NBC.
Purpose and Need for the Action: The Global War on Terror has
resulted in Congressionally-mandated personnel growth and increased
training and operational readiness requirements for NSWC. However,
current NSWC operational support, classroom and tactical skills
instruction and administrative facilities, primarily located at NAB
Coronado, are inadequate to meet existing and future mission
requirements. Moreover, expansion potential at this location is
limited. To accommodate NSWC's projected growth requires additional
logistics and operational support
[[Page 38782]]
buildings, classrooms, storage and administrative facilities.
Accordingly, the purpose of the Proposed Action is to provide
adequate facilities to support growth of NSWC and to maintain the
required levels of operational readiness of special warfare forces, as
mandated by Title 10 of U.S.C. Section 167 and Section 5062. The need
for the proposed action is the lack of sufficient facilities and space
to support NSWC's administrative, logistics, and classroom and tactical
instruction functions. The Proposed Action would meet this need by
optimizing both facilities and use of space, including synchronistic
site improvements, within the existing NBC footprint. This would allow
NSWC to support fluctuating organizational structure and mandated
mission requirements.
The specific arrangement of built assets, number of buildings and
required space would be developed and refined during the NEPA process
based on scoping, impacts analysis and results of resource surveys. The
DoN proposes 25 projects on NBC over a period of approximately ten
years. Each of these projects would be refined as they are studied and
evaluated during the Coastal Campus EIS process. The Coastal Campus
EIS, when completed, would provide an analytic baseline from which each
successive NSWC project may be optimally designed in terms of land use,
facilities and infrastructure, and impacts to resources found within
the study area.
Alternatives to be Considered: The EIS proposes to address four
alternatives, including the No Action Alternative. The alternatives
have been designed to study land use patterns, existing infrastructure
and resource impacts, as an analytical baseline for receipt of future
NSWC Military Construction (MILCON) Program projects. The alternatives
would include:
(1) Alternative 1 (SSTC-S Alternative) consists of:
[cir] Consolidation of the necessary NSWC facilities to one
location on the northern half of SSTC-S.
[cir] Design and construction of logistical support buildings,
equipment use and maintenance training facilities, classroom and
tactical skills instruction buildings, storage and administrative
facilities, utilities, fencing, roads, and parking.
[cir] Construction of a new entry controlled point providing
immediate access to SSTC-S from State Route 75, utilizing sustainable
design for all facilities as is practicable.
(2) Alternative 2 (SSTC-S Design II expanded footprint Alternative)
would include all of the components of Alternative 1, but the design
footprint would increase by expanding the footprint down to the
southern fence line of the SSTC-S boundary.
(3) Alternative 3 (Multi-Installation Alternative) would site
necessary NSWC facilities at more than one location to include NAB
Coronado, NASNI, NOLFIB, and SSTC-S incorporating sustainable design
into all facilities as is practicable.
(4) Alternative 4 (No Action Alternative) would maintain existing
land uses and training facilities as currently utilized at NBC. No new
improvements would occur. Current programmed levels of use (type,
tempo, location), including requirements for planned force growth,
would continue. As a result, NSWC would continue to have limited space
for current and future training support, as well as an inability to
cope with Congressionally-mandated expanding training needs. Without
consolidation of classroom and support facilities, NSWC personnel would
continue to transit between SSTC-N/NAB Coronado, SSTC-S, and NOLFIB.
This would continue inefficiency and fragmentation of training and
increased expenses, and the environmental consequences would persist
(e.g., air emissions and energy consumption of vehicle miles traveled).
By limiting facilities and land use support to accommodate NSWC growth
and expansion, Alternative 4--No Action Alternative would not achieve
the mission of NSWC; however, it will be studied as a baseline of
current land and facilities use.
Environmental Issues and Resources to be Examined: Environmental
issues that will be addressed in the EIS will include, but are not
limited to: Air quality, biological resources (including threatened and
endangered species), cultural resources (including historic properties
and archaeological resources), geology and soils, hazardous materials
and hazardous waste management, health and safety, noise, visual
resources, coastal resources, land use, recreation, socioeconomics
(including environmental justice and protection of children),
transportation and circulation, water resources, and public access.
Measures that would avoid or mitigate environmental effects will also
be analyzed. Additionally, the DoN will undertake any consultations
required by the Endangered Species Act, Coastal Zone Management Act,
National Historic Preservation Act, Clean Water Act, and any other
applicable law or regulation.
Submitting Comments: The DoN encourages interested persons to
submit comments concerning the alternatives proposed for study and
environmental impacts to be analyzed. Federal, State and local
agencies, Tribal governments, and interested persons are encouraged to
provide oral and/or written comments to the DoN to identify specific
environmental issues or topics of environmental concern that the DoN
should consider when developing the Draft EIS. The DoN will prepare the
Draft EIS, incorporating issues identified by the commenting public.
All comments received, whether written, oral, on-line, at the public
scoping meetings or provided to the DoN during the public scoping
period, will receive consideration during Draft EIS preparation.
Written comments on the scope of the EIS should be postmarked no
later than July 30, 2012. Comments may be mailed to the EIS Project
Manager (Attn: Ms. Teresa Bresler), 2730 McKean Street, Bldg. 291, San
Diego, California, 92136. Comments may also be submitted via the EIS
Web site at www.nbccoastalcampuseis.com.
Dated: June 19, 2012.
L.R. Almand,
Office of the Judge Advocate General, U.S. Navy, Alternate Federal
Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. 2012-15979 Filed 6-28-12; 8:45 am]
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