[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 15 (Tuesday, January 24, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3825-3826]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-794]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Air Force


Notice of Intent To Perform an Environmental Assessment for 
Increased Depleted Uranium Use at Nevada Test and Training Range, 
Nevada

AGENCY: Department of the Air Force (AF), Air Combat Command (ACC).

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA) 
for the Increased Depleted Uranium (DU) Use at Nevada Test and Training 
Range (NTTR).

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    Authority: 42 United States Code Sec. Sec.  4321-4347 40 Code of 
Federal Regulations (CFR) parts 1500-1508.

SUMMARY: The United States Air Force is issuing this Notice of Intent 
(NOI) to announce that it is conducting an environmental assessment for 
the proposed action for increasing the annual number of depleted 
uranium (DU) rounds fired by A-10 aircraft using the 30-millimeter GAU-
8 Gatling gun at the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), Range 63, 
Target 63-10. This NOI describes the Air Force's proposed scoping 
process and identifies the Air Force's point of contact. Target 63-10 
is the Air Force's only air-to-ground target for testing and training 
with DU rounds.
    The proposed assessment will be prepared in compliance with the 
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321-4347), 
the Council on Environmental Quality NEPA regulations (40 CFR parts 
1500-1508), and Air Force's Environmental Impact Analysis Process 
(EIAP) (Air Force Instruction 32-7061 as promulgated at 32 CFR part 
989) to determine the potential environmental effects of increasing DU 
rounds at the NTTR.
    As part of the proposal, the Air Force will analyze three 
alternatives: A, B, and C. Alternative A (proposed action) would 
increase the annual use of 30-mm DU rounds in a combat mix (CM) from an 
existing 9,500 to 22,800 annually. CM contains armor-piercing 
incendiary (API) DU rounds mixed with high explosive incendiary (HEI) 
rounds in a 5 to 1 ratio. Alternative A would increase the annual use 
of DU rounds from 7,900 to 19,000 (and HEI rounds from 1,600 to 3,800) 
to provide the 422 Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES) and the 66 
Weapons Squadron (WPS) graduates with sufficient DU rounds to 
accomplish essential testing and training requirements. Alternative B 
would enhance testing by increasing the use of CM to a total of 31,680 
rounds (26,400 DU and 5,280 HEI) at Target 63-10. This alternative 
would meet test and training requirements and also allow additional 
testing by Tactics Development & Evaluation (TD&E) and Tactics 
Improvement Proposals (TIP). Alternative C (no-action) would reflect no 
change in current operations associated with Target 63-10 whereby 9,500 
CM rounds (7,900 DU and 1,600 HEI) are deployed for test and training. 
This number (9,500) does not provide enough rounds for effective TES 
testing and WPS training.

DATES: The Air Force will conduct two scoping meetings to receive 
public input on alternatives, concerns, and issues to be addressed in 
the EA and to solicit public input concerning the scope of the proposed 
action and alternatives. The

[[Page 3826]]

schedule and locations of the scoping meetings are as follows: January 
31, 2006: 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m., Sunrise Library, 5400 Harris Avenue, Las 
Vegas, Nevada and February 1, 2006: 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m., Indian Springs 
Community Center, 719 West Gretta Lane, Indian Springs, Nevada.
    The Air Force will accept comments at any time during the scoping 
period. However, to ensure the Air Force considers relevant scoping 
issues in a timely fashion, all comments should be forwarded to the 
address below no later than March 1, 2006. If during the preparation of 
the EA, the Air Force concludes an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) 
is warranted, comments received during this scoping period will be 
considered in the preparation of the EIS.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mike Estrada, Nellis Air Force Base 
Office of Public Affairs, 4430 Grissom Avenue, Ste 107, Nellis AFB, NV 
89191, (702) 652-2750.

Lawrence Shade,
Acting Air Force Federal Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. E6-794 Filed 1-23-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 5001-06-P