[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 126 (Friday, June 29, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38781-38782]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-15979]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Navy


Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for 
the Proposed Naval Base Coronado Coastal Campus and To Announce Public 
Scoping Meetings

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, as implemented by the Council on 
Environmental Quality Regulations, the Department of the Navy (DoN) 
announces its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) 
to evaluate the potential environmental effects of developing an 
academic campus on Naval Base Coronado (NBC) to support the current and 
future operational readiness of personnel with the Naval Special 
Warfare Command (NSWC). The proposed campus would include a mix of 
instructional and administrative facilities that would provide for 
indoor classroom and tactical training instruction, and equipment use, 
maintenance, and storage. Specific proposed actions within the Coastal 
Campus proposal are: (1) Evaluation of current land use and available 
facilities; (2) augmentation by design and construction of new 
facilities to support logistics, equipment use and maintenance 
training, classroom and tactical skills instruction, storage, and 
administration; and, (3) design and build of related site improvements 
that may include upgraded utilities, fencing, roads, and parking. An 
EIS is considered the appropriate document for comprehensively 
analyzing the potential environmental impacts of implementing this 
proposed action.
    Dates and Addresses: DoN is initiating a 30-day public scoping 
process to identify community interests and specific issues to be 
addressed in the EIS. This public scoping process starts with the 
publication of this Notice of Intent (NOI). Two public scoping meetings 
will be held to receive oral and/or written comments on issues to be 
addressed in the EIS:
    1. Tuesday, July 17, 2012, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Marina Vista 
Community Center, 1075 Eighth Street, Imperial Beach, California, 
91932.
    2. Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Winn Room, 
Coronado Public Library, 640 Orange Avenue, Coronado, California, 
92118.
    Additional information concerning meeting times and locations is 
available on the EIS Web site at www.nbccoastalcampuseis.com. Public 
scoping meeting dates, times, and locations are also being announced in 
the local news media, including a local Spanish language newspaper.
    Public scoping meetings will include open house sessions, with 
information stations staffed by the DoN representatives. Comments, both 
written and oral, will be collected at each of the two public scoping 
meetings, and written comments may also be made electronically on the 
project Web site. Spanish translation will be available at the public 
meetings and the project Web site accommodates Spanish language users.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Naval Base Coronado Coastal Campus EIS 
Project Manager, Attn: Ms. Teresa Bresler, 2730 McKean Street, Bldg 
291, San Diego, California 92136.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NSWC is the maritime component of United 
States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). Based at NAB Coronado, 
California, NSWC's mission is to organize, train, man, equip, educate, 
sustain, maintain combat readiness, and deploy Naval Special Warfare 
(NSW) forces to carry out special operations missions worldwide. NSW 
forces operate independently or in conjunction with other special 
operations forces (SOF), joint forces, allied units, and coalition 
forces.
    NSWC currently conducts administrative and extensive logistics 
support, equipment use and maintenance training and classroom and 
tactical skills instruction on the Silver Strand Training Complex-North 
(SSTC-N) and Silver Strand Training Complex South (SSTC-S), Naval 
Amphibious Base (NAB) Coronado, Naval Air Station North Island (NASNI), 
and Naval Outlying Landing Field Imperial Beach (NOLFIB), and Camp 
Michael Monsoor. Although all of the facilities currently used by NSWC 
are located on components of NBC, they are over-utilized as well as 
widely dispersed and not conveniently co-located.
    To support Congressionally-mandated growth of NSWC and to meet its 
current and anticipated mission requirements, the DoN is proposing a 
Coastal Campus at NBC. The proposed Coastal Campus would support future 
operational readiness by augmenting available NSWC facilities and 
reducing fragmentation and space deficiencies, while providing an 
integrated campus that accommodates primacy and privacy, 
characteristics of learning required for the development of these skill 
sets.
    The proposed Coastal Campus would augment the current facilities 
used by NSWC. Specific proposed actions within the Coastal Campus 
proposal are as follows.
    (1) Evaluation of current land use and available facilities.
    (2) Augmentation by design and construction of new facilities to 
support logistics, equipment use and maintenance training, classroom 
and tactical skills instruction, storage, and administration.
    (3) Design and build of related site improvements that may 
including utilities, fencing, roads, and parking. Due to the functional 
linkages and the geographic proximity of the components, the proposed 
Coastal Campus could be sited at SSTC-S, SSTC-N including NAB Coronado, 
NASNI, or NOLFIB, or a combination of these locations, all within the 
footprint of NBC.
    Purpose and Need for the Action: The Global War on Terror has 
resulted in Congressionally-mandated personnel growth and increased 
training and operational readiness requirements for NSWC. However, 
current NSWC operational support, classroom and tactical skills 
instruction and administrative facilities, primarily located at NAB 
Coronado, are inadequate to meet existing and future mission 
requirements. Moreover, expansion potential at this location is 
limited. To accommodate NSWC's projected growth requires additional 
logistics and operational support

[[Page 38782]]

buildings, classrooms, storage and administrative facilities.
    Accordingly, the purpose of the Proposed Action is to provide 
adequate facilities to support growth of NSWC and to maintain the 
required levels of operational readiness of special warfare forces, as 
mandated by Title 10 of U.S.C. Section 167 and Section 5062. The need 
for the proposed action is the lack of sufficient facilities and space 
to support NSWC's administrative, logistics, and classroom and tactical 
instruction functions. The Proposed Action would meet this need by 
optimizing both facilities and use of space, including synchronistic 
site improvements, within the existing NBC footprint. This would allow 
NSWC to support fluctuating organizational structure and mandated 
mission requirements.
    The specific arrangement of built assets, number of buildings and 
required space would be developed and refined during the NEPA process 
based on scoping, impacts analysis and results of resource surveys. The 
DoN proposes 25 projects on NBC over a period of approximately ten 
years. Each of these projects would be refined as they are studied and 
evaluated during the Coastal Campus EIS process. The Coastal Campus 
EIS, when completed, would provide an analytic baseline from which each 
successive NSWC project may be optimally designed in terms of land use, 
facilities and infrastructure, and impacts to resources found within 
the study area.
    Alternatives to be Considered: The EIS proposes to address four 
alternatives, including the No Action Alternative. The alternatives 
have been designed to study land use patterns, existing infrastructure 
and resource impacts, as an analytical baseline for receipt of future 
NSWC Military Construction (MILCON) Program projects. The alternatives 
would include:
    (1) Alternative 1 (SSTC-S Alternative) consists of:
    [cir] Consolidation of the necessary NSWC facilities to one 
location on the northern half of SSTC-S.
    [cir] Design and construction of logistical support buildings, 
equipment use and maintenance training facilities, classroom and 
tactical skills instruction buildings, storage and administrative 
facilities, utilities, fencing, roads, and parking.
    [cir] Construction of a new entry controlled point providing 
immediate access to SSTC-S from State Route 75, utilizing sustainable 
design for all facilities as is practicable.
    (2) Alternative 2 (SSTC-S Design II expanded footprint Alternative) 
would include all of the components of Alternative 1, but the design 
footprint would increase by expanding the footprint down to the 
southern fence line of the SSTC-S boundary.
    (3) Alternative 3 (Multi-Installation Alternative) would site 
necessary NSWC facilities at more than one location to include NAB 
Coronado, NASNI, NOLFIB, and SSTC-S incorporating sustainable design 
into all facilities as is practicable.
    (4) Alternative 4 (No Action Alternative) would maintain existing 
land uses and training facilities as currently utilized at NBC. No new 
improvements would occur. Current programmed levels of use (type, 
tempo, location), including requirements for planned force growth, 
would continue. As a result, NSWC would continue to have limited space 
for current and future training support, as well as an inability to 
cope with Congressionally-mandated expanding training needs. Without 
consolidation of classroom and support facilities, NSWC personnel would 
continue to transit between SSTC-N/NAB Coronado, SSTC-S, and NOLFIB. 
This would continue inefficiency and fragmentation of training and 
increased expenses, and the environmental consequences would persist 
(e.g., air emissions and energy consumption of vehicle miles traveled). 
By limiting facilities and land use support to accommodate NSWC growth 
and expansion, Alternative 4--No Action Alternative would not achieve 
the mission of NSWC; however, it will be studied as a baseline of 
current land and facilities use.
    Environmental Issues and Resources to be Examined: Environmental 
issues that will be addressed in the EIS will include, but are not 
limited to: Air quality, biological resources (including threatened and 
endangered species), cultural resources (including historic properties 
and archaeological resources), geology and soils, hazardous materials 
and hazardous waste management, health and safety, noise, visual 
resources, coastal resources, land use, recreation, socioeconomics 
(including environmental justice and protection of children), 
transportation and circulation, water resources, and public access. 
Measures that would avoid or mitigate environmental effects will also 
be analyzed. Additionally, the DoN will undertake any consultations 
required by the Endangered Species Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, 
National Historic Preservation Act, Clean Water Act, and any other 
applicable law or regulation.
    Submitting Comments: The DoN encourages interested persons to 
submit comments concerning the alternatives proposed for study and 
environmental impacts to be analyzed. Federal, State and local 
agencies, Tribal governments, and interested persons are encouraged to 
provide oral and/or written comments to the DoN to identify specific 
environmental issues or topics of environmental concern that the DoN 
should consider when developing the Draft EIS. The DoN will prepare the 
Draft EIS, incorporating issues identified by the commenting public. 
All comments received, whether written, oral, on-line, at the public 
scoping meetings or provided to the DoN during the public scoping 
period, will receive consideration during Draft EIS preparation.
    Written comments on the scope of the EIS should be postmarked no 
later than July 30, 2012. Comments may be mailed to the EIS Project 
Manager (Attn: Ms. Teresa Bresler), 2730 McKean Street, Bldg. 291, San 
Diego, California, 92136. Comments may also be submitted via the EIS 
Web site at www.nbccoastalcampuseis.com.

    Dated: June 19, 2012.
L.R. Almand,
Office of the Judge Advocate General, U.S. Navy, Alternate Federal 
Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. 2012-15979 Filed 6-28-12; 8:45 am]
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