[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 80 (Friday, April 24, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Page 23010]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-08737]



[[Page 23010]]

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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Army


Programmatic Environmental Assessment for Real Property Master 
Plans on U.S. Army Installation Management Command Garrisons

AGENCY: Department of the Army, DoD.

ACTION: Notice of Availability.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM) has 
completed a Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) analyzing the 
impacts of developing, adopting, implementing, and updating Real 
Property Management Plans (RPMPs) and their component documents using a 
standardized process in accordance with Department of Defense (DoD) and 
Army guidance, and encouraging community partner participation in this 
process. The Army is making the PEA and a draft Finding of No 
Significant Impact (FONSI) available for public comment. The PEA 
identifies no significant environmental impacts from implementing the 
Proposed Action. The draft FONSI concludes that preparing an 
environmental impact statement is not required and, therefore, one will 
not be prepared.

DATES: The public comment period will end 30 days after publication of 
the Notice of Availability in the Federal Register by the Department of 
the Army.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent by mail to U.S. Army 
Environmental Command, ATTN: Public Comments, 2450 Connell Road (Build 
2264), Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234-7664; or by 
email to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:  U.S. Army Environmental Command 
Public Affairs Office at (210) 466-1590 or toll-free at (855) 846-3940, 
or at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Army has prepared this PEA in accordance 
with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) (Title 42 of 
the United States Code Section 4321); Council on Environmental Quality 
(CEQ) NEPA regulations (Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations 
[CFR] Parts 1500-1508); and the Army's NEPA implementing regulation, 
Environmental Analysis of Army Actions (32 CFR part 651).
    The purpose of the Proposed Action is for IMCOM garrisons to plan 
for and manage their real property assets comprehensively to permit 
installation expansion, reduction, and changes in mission sustainably 
over a 20-year planning horizon. The Proposed Action is needed to 
provide a standard process to guide sustainable and energy-efficient 
development across IMCOM installations that supports mission 
requirements. It is also needed to provide a continuous analytical 
process to evaluate factors affecting the present and future physical 
development and operation of installations. Standardizing the process 
of developing RPMPs and component documents at IMCOM garrisons is 
expected to result in each garrison producing a more thoughtful and 
deliberative plan that contains comparable categories of information 
and is similarly organized across all installations.
    The PEA will serve to integrate the NEPA process more efficiently 
into the master planning process, avoid unnecessary duplicative NEPA 
analyses, better inform decision makers, and encourage active public 
involvement.
    The RPMP serves as a garrison's road map for short- and long-term 
investment, management and development of its real property assets, 
including land, facilities, and infrastructure. It provides guidelines 
for sustainable installation development, regulates project siting, and 
ensures sustainable and orderly development that supports the 
installation's mission.
    When considering implementing an individual proposed action, IMCOM 
garrisons would complete the Environmental Checklist in the PEA to 
determine whether tiering from the PEA and FONSI would be appropriate 
and what type of additional site-specific NEPA documentation, if any, 
would be required. If a garrison determines that a specific 
installation RPMP, RPMP component document, or project requires 
additional NEPA analysis tiered from the PEA, the garrison would be 
required to complete the appropriate NEPA documentation before making 
any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources related to 
that action. Tiering from the PEA, when appropriate, would avoid or 
reduce the costs of repetitive, similar analyses and enable IMCOM to 
focus resources on only those site-specific environmental issues that 
require deeper analyses.
    Members of the public, federally recognized Native American tribes, 
and federal, state, and local agencies are invited to submit written 
comments on the PEA and/or draft FONSI.
    The PEA and draft FONSI can be accessed on the U.S. Army 
Environmental Command's NEPA Documents page at https://aec.army.mil/index.php?cID=352.

Brenda S. Bowen,
Army Federal Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. 2020-08737 Filed 4-23-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 5061-AP-P