Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Department of Defense), everything that occurs within the base boundaries,
from new buildings to street repair, is potentially subject to NEPA. Following
decades of making frequent evaluations as to the applicability of NEPA and
the appropriate approach for NEPA compliance for every activity on the
base, those in charge of public works and environmental compliance took
positive action to address this inefficiency, duplication, and unnecessary use
of scarce environmental resources. They decided to prepare a programmatic
EA to collectively analyze the environmental impacts of recurring types of
base activities. This included maintenance of existing structures and infra-
structure and construction of new facilities within previously disturbed and
developed land.
Part of the process to address the existing inefficient and cumbersome
environmental analysis process was a review of past NEPA evaluations. This
included consideration of over 75 individual EAs conducted during the pre-
vious 10 years including projects such as:
r Construction of 96 army family housing units
r Upgrade of the primary power system
r Construction of an elementary school
r Addition of a boiler to the central energy facility
r Construction of a central troop medical and dental clinic
r Revitalization of Werner Park family housing
r Construction of a training and recruiting facility
r Construction of an on-post railroad
r Waterline system improvements
r Construction of a JP-8 tank farm
r Installation of energy efficient motors
r Addition of aprons to the air field
The review concluded that there were multiple EAs prepared for very sim-
ilar or identical activities within areas of similar land use (e.g., nine hous-
ing projects and four school projects all in previously developed areas). The
review also found that all the EAs included a standard list of required miti-
gation measures and resulted in Findings of No Significant Impact (FONSIs).
Thus the decision was made to prepare a programmatic EA to cover routine
construction and maintenance actions within the cantonment area (i.e., the
developed portion) of Fort Campbell.
The purpose and need statement and the description of the proposed
action in the programmatic EA were broad, allowing application of the con-
clusions to a wide variety of activities. Although the coverage was broad,
substantial guidance regarding the types of activities covered was provided
by listing the EAs for previous activities that were reviewed and referenced
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