[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 139 (Thursday, July 20, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37490-37491]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-17876]



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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Coast Guard
[CGD 95-060]


Differential Global Positioning System; Brunswick, Maine: 
Environmental Assessment and Finding

AGENCY: Coast Guard, DOT.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: The Coast Guard has prepared a programmatic Environmental 
Assessment (EA) and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for its 
activating a broadcast site of the Differential Global Positioning 
System (DGPS) service at Brunswick, Maine. The EA concludes that there 
will be no significant impact on the environment and that preparation 
of an Environmental Impact Statement will not be necessary. This Notice 
announces the availability of the EA and FONSI and solicits comments on 
them.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before August 21, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to the Executive Secretary, Marine 
Safety Council, Coast Guard Headquarters, 2100 Second Street SW., 
Washington, DC 20593-0001, or may be delivered to room 3406 at the same 
address between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, except 
Federal holidays. The telephone number is (202) 267-1477.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: CWO Roger Hughes, United States 
Coast Guard Navigation Center, at (703) 313-5889. Copies of the EA 
and FONSI may be obtained by calling Mr. Hughes, or by faxing a 
request to him at (703) 313-5920. Copies of the EA--without 
enclosures--may also be obtained on the Electronic Bulletin Board 
System (BBS) at the Navigation Information Service (NIS) in 
Alexandria, Virginia, at (703) 313-5910. For information about the 
BBS, call the watchstander of NIS at (703) 313-5900.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Request for Comments

    The Coast Guard encourages interested persons to submit comments on 
the EA and FONSI, which are available as stated in the previous two 
paragraphs. It may revise the EA and the FONSI in view of the comments. 
If it does, it will announce their availability 

[[Page 37491]]
in revised form by a later notice in the Federal Register.

Background

    As required by Congress, the Coast Guard is preparing to install 
the equipment necessary to implement DGPS service in the northeastern 
United States. DGPS uses a new radionavigation technique that improves 
upon the 100-meter accuracy of the existing Global Positioning System 
to provide an accuracy of 8 to 20 meters. For vessels, this degree of 
accuracy is crucial for precise electronic navigation in harbors and 
their approaches: It will reduce the number of groundings, collisions, 
personal injuries, fatalities, and spills of hazardous cargo resulting 
from such incidents.
    After extensive study, the Coast Guard has chosen a site at Naval 
Air Station (NAS) Brunswick, Maine, instead of the originally planned 
site at Bass Harbor Lighthouse, Maine, as a site for installation of 
DGPS equipment. Significant concerns had been raised about installing 
the equipment at Bass Harbor Lighthouse with regard to the impact on 
people visiting the adjacent Acadia National Park and to the scenic 
value of the Lighthouse itself. But DGPS signals will be transmitted in 
the marine-radiobeacon frequency band--283.5 to 325 KHz--using less 
than 25 watts' effective radiated power. Signals transmitted at these 
low frequencies and this low power have not been found harmful even to 
the immediate environment.

Proposed Installation at NAS Brunswick

    (a) Site--NAS Brunswick, near the town of Brunswick, already 
accommodates radio antennas and other electronic equipment.
    (b) Radiobeacon antenna--The Coast Guard will install a 90-foot 
guyed antenna with an accompanying ground plane. A ground plane for 
this antenna consists of around 120 radials, each of 6-gauge copper 
wire, buried 6 inches or less below the soil and projecting from the 
base of the antenna. The best length for a radial is 300 feet; but the 
actual length may be shorter, with little or no loss of efficiency, to 
make the radials fit within the boundaries of the property. Whenever it 
can, the Coast Guard will bury the radials by the cable-plow method so 
as to minimize disturbance of the soil.
    (c) DGPS antennas--The Coast Guard will mount six receiving 
antennas, none higher than 18 inches or broader in base-diameter than 
24 inches, on top of an existing building. These antennas support the 
primary and backup reference receivers and the integrity monitors.
    (d) Equipment shelter--The Coast Guard will house the DGPS 
equipment inside an existing building.
    (e) Utilities--The Coast Guard will use available commercial power 
as the primary source for the antennas, the DGPS equipment, and the 
other electronic equipment. It will use a telephone line run to the 
site for operating and monitoring from off the site.

Finding

    The Coast Guard has determined that implementing DGPS service at 
NAS Brunswick will neither have a significant impact on the quality of 
the human environment nor require preparation of an Environmental 
Impact Statement.

    Dated: July 17, 1995.
Rudy K. Peschel,
Rear Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard, Chief, Office of Navigation Safety and 
Waterway Services.
[FR Doc. 95-17876 Filed 7-19-95; 8:45 am]
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