4 June 2001
Source: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html
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[Federal Register: June 4, 2001 (Volume 66, Number 107)]
[Notices]
[Page 29935-29936]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr04jn01-24]
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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Department of the Army
Preparation of a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement
(PEIS) on the Chemical and Biological Defense Program (CBDP)
AGENCY: U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Department of
the Army, DoD.
ACTION: Notice of intent.
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SUMMARY: The Department of the Army announces its intention to prepare
a PEIS that will assesses the potential
[[Page 29936]]
environmental impacts associated with the execution of the DoD CBDP
designed to protect our soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen from the
evolving chemical and biological threats they may encounter on the
battlefield. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
1994 mandated the coordination and integration of all DoD CBDP. The
Army is the executive agent for the CBDP.
ADDRESSES: Written comments concerning the PEIS should be addressed to
Dr. Robert J. Carton, Environmental Coordinator, U.S. Army Medical
Research and Materiel Command, ATTN: MCMR-RCQ-E, 504 Scott Street, Fort
Detrick, MD 21702-5012.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Robert Carton at (301) 619-2004 or
by fax at (301) 619-6694.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The mission of the DoD CBDP is to provide
chemical and biological (CB) defense capabilities to allow the military
forces of the United States to survive and successfully complete their
operational missions in battlespace environments contaminated with CB
warfare agents. If our military forces are not fully and adequately
prepared to meet this threat, the consequences could be devastating.
The CBDP to support this mission comprises research, development and
acquisition activities. Each of the Military Services, the Joint
Program Office for Biological Defense, and the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency conduct CBDP activities. Some of these CBDP
activities necessarily involve the use of hazardous chemicals or
infectious disease agents for research, development, and production
purposes. The controls on and the potential environmental consequences
of such use both for the proposed action and for any reasonable
alternatives will be a primary focus of the CBDP PEIS.
The CBDP is divided into six commodity areas. Each commodity area
is managed by one of the Military Services and has an activity focus as
follows:
(1) Contamination Avoidance (Army): Pursuit of technological
advances in CB standoff detection, remote/early warning detection,
sensor miniaturization, and improved detection sensitivity.
(2) Individual Protection (Marine Corps) and Collective Protection
(Navy): Pursuit of technological advances that provide an individual
with improved vision and voice capabilities, increased protection
levels, and reduced heat stress over current individual protection
equipment. Also the pursuit of technological advances that improve
generic CB protective filters and fans, and advances that reduce the
weight, volume, cost, logistics, and manpower requirements associated
with providing individual and collective protection.
(3) Decontamination (Air Force): Pursuit of technological advances
in sorbents, coatings, and physical removal, which will reduce
logistics burden, manpower requirements, and lost operational
capability associated with decontamination operations.
(4) Medical Protection (Army): Chemical defense efforts include
development of pretreatment therapeutic drugs, diagnostic equipment,
and other life support equipment for protection against and management
of chemical warfare agents. Biological defense efforts include
development of vaccines, drugs, and diagnostic medical devices for
protection against validated biological warfare agents to include
bacteria, viruses, and toxins of biological origin.
(5) Modeling and Simulation (Navy): Efforts include meteorological
models, transport and dispersion models, hazard and casualty
assessment, computational fluid dynamics, hydrocodes, and constructive,
live, and virtual simulation.
The activities take place at numerous military installations and
contractor facilities throughout the United States. Details concerning
the CBDP are contained in the ``Chemical and Biological Defense
Program, Annual Report to Congress, March 2000.'' This report may be
downloaded in electronic format from the DoD web site at http://
www.defenselink.com.
Although numerous environmental documents, dating back to the Final
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on the Biological Defense
Research and Development Program (April 1989), have been prepared
analyzing the potential environmental consequences of various elements
of the CBDP, no one document analyzes the potential environmental
impacts of the full range of these activities. In keeping with the
purposes of the National Environmental Policy Act, DoD has decided to
prepare such a document in the form of a PEIS on the CBDP. This
document will create an overarching framework that will continue to
ensure fully informed Government decision making within this program
and provide a single, up-to-date informational resource for the public.
Specifically, the PEIS will: (1) Update and expand current
programmatic documentation, providing information on and analysis of
the changes that have occurred in the biological defense program over
the last decade; (2) enlarge the scope of the current programmatic
documentation to include the chemical defense program; (3) provide a
current programmatic NEPA document that will facilitate future
Government decision making by allowing future environmental analyses
under the CBDP to be tiered from it; and (4) share with the public the
features of this program that demonstrate DoD's commitment to protect
the environment and to ensure public safety during the execution of
this operationally mandated program.
Proposed Action and Alternatives
The proposed action consists of the execution of an integrated
program designed to protect our soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen
from the evolving chemical and biological threats they may encounter on
the battlefield. The No-Action alternative, continuation of current
CBDP operations as described in and covered by existing environmental
analyses will be evaluated, as well as all other reasonable
alternatives identified during the public scoping process.
Scoping Process
Public comments are solicited concerning the environmental issues
related to the CBDP. Scoping activities will be designed to facilitate
public involvement. The scoping process supporting this effort will
include: establishment of the public CBDP PEIS web site at http://
ChemBioEIS.detrick.army.mil; dissemination of public information
packages; publications in local newspapers; and coordination with
public interest groups. Public meetings may be held if subsequently
determined appropriate. These efforts will allow the public to provide
input regarding the scope of the study and reasonable alternatives. To
permit sufficient time for the U.S. Army to fully consider public input
on issues, written or e-mail comments should be mailed or transmitted
to ensure receipt prior to the end of the scoping period that will be
identified on the CBDP PEIS web site. E-mail comments may be submitted
via the CBDP PEIS web site at http://ChemBioEIS.detrick.army.mil.
Dated: May 29, 2001.
Raymond J. Fatz,
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Environment, Safety and
Occupational Health), OASA (I&E).
[FR Doc. 01-13892 Filed 6-1-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3710-08-M