[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 75 (Friday, April 18, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 21907-21908]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-08845]
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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Department of the Navy
Notice of Availability and Notice of Public Meetings for the
Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Guam and
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Relocation (2012 Roadmap
Adjustments)
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 (42 U.S. Code [U.S.C.] 4321, et seq.) and the
Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) Regulations for implementing the
procedural provisions of NEPA (Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations
[CFR] Parts 1500-1508), the Department of the Navy (DoN) announces the
availability of the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement
for the Guam and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Military
Relocation (2012 Roadmap Adjustments) (hereinafter ``Draft SEIS'').
The DoN is the lead Federal agency for development of the Draft
SEIS. The agencies that have accepted the DoN's invitation to
participate as cooperating agencies are the U.S. Air Force, the Federal
Aviation Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency Region 9, the U.S. Department of
Interior--Office of Insular Affairs, and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
Pursuant to 40 CFR 1502.9, the DoN prepared this Draft SEIS for the
purpose of supplementing the portions of the 2010 Final Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) regarding the establishment on Guam of a
cantonment (including family housing), a live-fire training range
complex (LFTRC), and associated infrastructure to support the
relocation of a substantially reduced number of Marines and dependents
than was previously analyzed. By supplementing the 2010 Final EIS, the
Draft SEIS advances NEPA's purpose of informing decision-makers and the
public about the environmental effects of the DoN's proposed action.
The DoN will conduct three (3) public meetings to receive oral and
written comments on the Draft SEIS. Federal agencies, territorial/local
governmental agencies, and interested individuals are invited to be
present or represented at the public meetings. The meetings will be
comprised of two parts: (1) An informational open house and (2) public
hearing. All comments will become part of the public record and will
help officials make informed decisions on the proposed action. These
meetings will also serve to provide information to the public about how
the 2011 Programmatic Agreement fulfills the requirements under Section
106 of the National Historic Preservation Act for the proposed action.
This notice announces the dates and locations of the public meetings
for this Draft SEIS.
DATES: The 60-day public comment period for the Draft SEIS will start
on April 18, 2014 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (April 19, 2014 Chamorro
Standard Time [ChST]) with the publication of a Notice of Availability
in the Federal Register by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and
will end on June 16, 2014 EDT (June 17, 2014 ChST).
The three (3) public meetings will begin with a two-hour open house
session where the public can learn more about the proposed action and
potential environmental impacts from project team members and subject
matter experts. A hearing will follow the open house. The public is
encouraged to attend the meetings, which will be held on the following
dates, times, and locations:
Saturday, May 17, 2014, open house from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00
p.m. and public hearing from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Okkodo High
School, 660 Route 3, Dededo;
Monday, May 19, 2014, open house from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00
p.m. and public hearing from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Father
Due[ntilde]as Memorial School Phoenix Center, 119 Due[ntilde]as Lane,
Chalan Pago; and
Tuesday, May 20, 2014, open house from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00
p.m. and public hearing from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Gymnasium, Naval
Base Guam--Santa Rita Annex, Bldg. 4177 (former McCool School), Naval
Magazine Road, Santa Rita.
Informational posters will be displayed and DoN representatives
will be available during the open house portion of the meetings to
discuss the proposed action, answer questions, and to accept written
comments from the public. A Chamorro interpreter will be available.
Oral comments will be recorded during the public hearing portion of the
meetings. Speakers will be limited to three (3) minutes to ensure all
who wish to speak have an opportunity to do so. If a long statement is
to be presented, it should be summarized at the public hearing and the
full text submitted in writing.
Interested agencies, individuals, and groups unable to attend the
public meetings are encouraged to submit comments by June 17, 2014,
ChST. Mailed comments should be postmarked no later than June 17, 2014,
ChST to ensure they are considered.
ADDRESSES: The public may provide comments during one of the public
meetings, through the project Web site at http://guambuildupeis.us, or
by mail at: Joint Guam Program Office Forward, P.O. 153246, Santa Rita,
Guam 96915.
The Draft SEIS was distributed to Federal, state, and local
agencies, elected officials, and other interested individuals and
organizations. The Draft SEIS is available for public review at http://guambuildupeis.us and at the following libraries: University of Guam
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Library, Government Documents, Tan Siu Lin
Building, UOG Station, 303 University Drive, Mangilao, GU 96923; and
the Nieves M. Flores Memorial Library, 254 Martyr Street,
Hagat[ntilde]a, GU 96910. The public may request copies of the Draft
SEIS Executive Summary by mail from the Joint Guam Program Office
Forward, P.O. 153246, Santa Rita, Guam 96915.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The DoN's proposed action is to construct
and operate a cantonment, including family housing, and an LFTRC on
Guam to support the Marine Corps relocation. To meet the purpose of and
need for the proposed action, the Marine Corps requires facilities that
can fully support the missions of the relocated units. These
requirements include a cantonment (with family housing and community
support facilities) of sufficient size and functional organization to
accommodate the reduced and reconfigured number of Marines relocating
to Guam per the 2012 Roadmap Adjustments, and an LFTRC that allows for
simultaneous use of firing ranges to support individual skills training
and related operations. The proposed action also includes the provision
of on-site utilities, access roads, and related off-site infrastructure
to support the proposed cantonment/family housing and LFTRC.
Background
The Draft SEIS supplements the Final EIS for the ``Guam and
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Military Relocation;
Relocating Marines from Okinawa, Visiting Aircraft Carrier
[[Page 21908]]
Berthing, and Army Air and Missile Defense Task Force'' dated July
2010. The Record of Decision (ROD) for the Final EIS was signed on
September 20, 2010, and published in the Federal Register (75 FR 60438,
September 30, 2010). In the months following the issuance of the ROD,
the DoN made adjustments with regards to the LFTRC, including
application of a probabilistic methodology that shrank the overall
footprint of the Multi-Purpose Machine Gun range. The DoN also formally
committed that if the Route 15 area was selected for the LFTRC, DoN
would provide for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week access to Pagat Village
and Pagat Cave historical sites, to include the trail leading to both.
Faced with this new information, the DoN initially elected to prepare
an SEIS limited solely to the evaluation of impacts associated with the
location, construction, and operation of the LFTRC. The DoN issued its
Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare the SEIS in February 2012 in the
Federal Register (77 FR 6787, February 9, 2012). In the NOI, the DoN
preliminarily identified five (5) alternatives for the LFTRC: Two (2)
were adjacent to Route 15 in northeastern Guam, and three (3) were
located at or immediately adjacent to the Naval Magazine (NAVMAG).
Public scoping meetings were conducted for the SEIS in March 2012, and
the public scoping comment period closed on April 6, 2012. Shortly
thereafter, on April 27, 2012, the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative
Committee issued a joint statement announcing its decision to adjust
the plans outlined in the May 2006 Roadmap for Realignment
Implementation. In accordance with these ``2012 Roadmap Adjustments,''
the DoD adopted a new force posture in the Pacific providing for a
materially smaller and reconfigured force on Guam. In conjunction with
changes in the mix of personnel involved in the relocation, the
adjustments reduced the originally planned relocation of approximately
8,600 Marines with approximately 9,000 dependents to a force of
approximately 5,000 Marines with approximately 1,300 dependents. That
decision prompted the DoN's review of the actions previously planned
for Guam and approved in the September 2010 ROD. This review concluded
that while some actions remained unchanged, others, such as the size
and location of the cantonment and family housing areas, could
significantly change because of the force modification. Therefore, the
DoN published a new NOI in the Federal Register (77 FR 61746, October
11, 2012) and amended the scope of the ongoing LFTRC SEIS to add those
actions that materially changed due to the new force posture. The DoN
conducted additional public scoping meetings for this SEIS in November
2012.
Alternatives Considered
The Draft SEIS analyzes a range of alternatives for the proposed
action including the no action alternative. The Draft SEIS analyzes
four (4) cantonment/family housing alternatives: Alternative A--
Finegayan; Alternative B--Finegayan/South Finegayan; Alternative C--
AAFB; and Alternative D--Barrigada. The Draft SEIS analyzes five (5)
LFTRC alternatives: Alternative 1--Route 15; Alternative 2--NAVMAG
East/West; Alternative 3--NAVMAG North/South; Alternative 4--NAVMAG L-
Shaped; and Alternative 5--Andersen Air Force Base Northwest Field
(NWF).
The Draft EIS provides information on the affected environment and
impacts of the proposed actions for 18 distinct resource areas. These
resource areas include water quality, terrestrial biology,
socioeconomics and environmental justice, land use, cultural resources,
recreation, visual, marine transportation, ground transportation, air
quality, noise, and utilities (including water, power and wastewater),
among others.
Preferred Alternative
Per the guidance of CEQ, an agency's preferred alternative is the
alternative that the agency believes best fulfills its statutory
mission and responsibilities, giving consideration to economic,
environmental, technical and other factors (40 CFR 1502.14(e)). The DoN
considered military requirements, infrastructure and environmental
impacts and constraints, and scoping input from the public, resource
agencies, and Government of Guam during the process of identifying a
preferred alternative. The DoN's preferred alternative is to construct
and operate a cantonment (including family housing) at Finegayan
(Alternative A) and an LFTRC at NWF (Alternative 5). This combination
best meets Marine Corps operational requirements (size and layout),
maximizes the use of federal land on Guam, and optimizes operational
efficiencies due to the relative proximity of the facilities.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Commander Curtis Duncan, Joint Guam
Program Office at 703-602-3825. On Guam, contact Major Darren Alvarez,
Joint Guam Program Office Forward, at 671-339-3337.
Dated: April 14, 2014.
N.A. Hagerty-Ford,
Commander, Office of the Judge Advocate General, U.S. Navy, Federal
Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. 2014-08845 Filed 4-17-14; 8:45 am]
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