[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 7 (Wednesday, January 11, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3385-3386]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-00278]


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DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS


Notice of Availability of a Record of Decision (ROD) for the 
Reconfiguration of VA Black Hills Health Care System (BHHCS)

AGENCY: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

ACTION: Notice of Availability.

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SUMMARY: VA announces the availability of the ROD for the 
Reconfiguration of VA Black Hills Health Care System (BHHCS). The ROD 
states the decision to implement VA's preferred alternative as 
described in the Final EIS. Environmental consequences of the action 
are discussed in the ROD, along with the required minimization and 
mitigation measures.

DATES: The ROD is effective January 11, 2017.

ADDRESSES: The ROD may be viewed online at www.blackhills.va.gov/vablackhillsfuture/. Copies of the ROD are also available in the 
following public locations: Hot Springs; Rapid City Downtown; Sturgis; 
Chadron; Alliance; Lied Scottsbluff; and Pierre (Rawlins Municipal) 
public libraries, as well as in Pine Ridge at the Oglala Lakota College 
Pine Ridge Center library on the high school campus.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Staff Assistant to the Director, VA 
Black Hills Health Care System, 113 Comanche Road, Fort Meade, SD 
57741, or by email to [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: VA BHHCS provides health care to 
approximately 19,000 Veterans over 100,000 square miles in western 
South Dakota (SD), northwestern Nebraska (NE), and eastern Wyoming 
(WY). VA BHHCS consists of two medical centers at Fort Meade and Hot 
Springs, eight community-based outpatient clinics (CBOC), and six 
Compensated Work Therapy locations. VA BHHCS has identified a need to 
reconfigure the health care services to ensure it continues to provide 
high quality, safe, and accessible health care services across its 
service area. The existing locations and facilities constrain the 
quality of care, range of services, and access to care that VA offers 
in the catchment area. The Hot Springs campus includes buildings 
constructed in 1907 as part of the Battle Mountain Branch of the 
National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. The Battle Mountain 
Sanitarium was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 2011.
    Pursuant to NEPA, VA has identified and analyzed potential 
environmental

[[Page 3386]]

impacts for a range of alternatives to the Proposed Action. These 
include seven alternatives, including the No Action Alternative, as 
well as a supplement to five of the alternatives for re-use of part or 
all of the existing Hot Springs campus. The alternatives propose 
different locations and combinations of facilities serving as a 
community-based outpatient clinic (CBOC), a multi-specialty outpatient 
clinic (MSOC), and a residential rehabilitation treatment program 
(RRTP) facility; expanding, renovating, or vacating existing 
facilities; reusing of part or all of the existing facilities; and 
taking no action. The new preferred Alternative, referred to as A-2 
plus G in the Final EIS, is a hybrid of Alternatives A and C plus 
Supplemental Alternative G evaluated in the Draft EIS. It was 
identified by consulting parties during the public comment period on 
the Draft EIS and includes renovating Building 12 on the existing Hot 
Springs campus to operate as a CBOC, that would include Dialysis, a new 
MSOC (replacing the existing leased CBOC), and a 100-bed RRTP in Rapid 
City.

Signing Authority

    The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, or designee, approved this 
document and authorized the undersigned to sign and submit the document 
to the Office of the Federal Register for publication electronically as 
an official document of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Robert A. 
McDonald, Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs, approved this 
document on January 4, 2017, for publication.

    Dated: January 4, 2017.
Jeffrey Martin,
Office Program Manager, Office of Regulation Policy & Management, 
Office of the Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2017-00278 Filed 1-10-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 8320-01-P