Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Draft Finding of No Practicable Alternative (FONPA) for the Proposed Construction and Operation of a Replacement Currency Production Facility at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Prince George's County, MD, 71394-71396 [2020-24826]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
• Bureau of Engraving and Printing

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 217 (Monday, November 9, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71394-71396]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-24826]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Bureau of Engraving and Printing


Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Draft Finding of 
No Practicable Alternative (FONPA) for the Proposed Construction and 
Operation of a Replacement Currency Production Facility at the 
Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Prince George's County, MD

AGENCY: Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Department of the Treasury.

ACTION: Notice of availability (NOA).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury), Bureau of 
Engraving and Printing (BEP) announces the availability of the Draft 
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed construction and 
operation of a replacement Currency Production Facility (CPF) at the 
Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Prince George's 
County, Maryland. This is the Proposed Action.

DATES: Comments must be received by December 21, 2020 to be considered 
during preparation of the Final EIS.

ADDRESSES: Written comments may be mailed to: ATTN: Bureau of Engraving 
and Printing (BEP) Project EIS, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), 
Baltimore District Planning Division, 2 Hopkins Plaza, 10th Floor, 
Baltimore, MD 21201, or emailed to: [email protected]. Comments 
may also be submitted online through the project website (https://www.nab.usace.army.mil/Home/BEP-Replacement-Project/) or delivered 
verbally during the public webinar, described below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please contact Mr. Harvey Johnson, 
USACE-Baltimore, Programs and Project Management Division by email at 
[email protected] or 410-977-6733. USACE has established a web 
page that contains information updates and background on this Draft EIS 
at https://www.nab.usace.army.mil/Home/BEP-Replacement-Project/.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with the National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Draft EIS analyzes the potential 
environmental and socioeconomic impacts, and recommends related 
mitigation measures, associated with the Proposed Action. The Proposed 
Action would replace Treasury's existing and obsolete currency 
production functions located in downtown Washington, DC (DC Facility), 
and would provide Treasury with a modern, scalable, sufficiently sized 
production facility within the National Capital Region (NCR) that meets 
Treasury's needs.
    The Proposed Action includes construction and operation of an up to 
1 million square-foot CPF within the NCR. The Proposed Action would be 
implemented over an approximately nine-year period, from 2021 to 2029. 
This duration includes design, construction, equipment installation, 
acceptance testing to support full operations, and the sequenced 
transition of approximately 1,600 personnel from Treasury's DC Facility 
into the completed CPF. Currency manufacturing at the DC Facility would 
be phased out. The operational life of the Proposed Action is 
anticipated to be 50 years. Treasury would incorporate Environmental 
Protection Measures (EPMs), Regulatory Compliance Measures (RCMs), and 
Best Management Practices (BMPs) into the Proposed Action to 
proactively minimize

[[Page 71395]]

potential adverse environmental impacts and comply with applicable 
environmental regulatory requirements. Additional mitigation measures 
are recommended to further reduce adverse impacts.
    A Draft Finding of No Practicable Alternative (FONPA) addressing 
potential impacts on wetlands is included in the Draft EIS for comment.
    The BEP's mission includes manufacturing U.S. currency notes; 
research, development, testing, and evaluation of counterfeit 
deterrents; and development of production automation technologies. 
Treasury currently operates two production facilities for this purpose: 
The DC Facility and a facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The DC Facility 
has been in operation for more than 100 years and is neither able to 
support modern currency production nor Treasury's (and specifically the 
BEP's) current and future mission.
    The condition, configuration, and location of the DC Facility 
severely limit Treasury's ability to modernize the DC Facility through 
renovation. Within the DC Facility, manufacturing processes are 
inefficient and increase staff safety risks; the location of the DC 
Facility does not allow Treasury to comply with modern physical 
security standards.
    Over the past 20 years, Treasury has considered several scenarios 
to address the inadequacy of its current facilities in the NCR, 
including renovation of the DC Facility and new construction within the 
NCR. Treasury concluded that construction of a new replacement CPF, as 
opposed to renovation of the DC Facility, was the most efficient and 
cost-effective option. As such, Treasury proposes to construct and 
operate a new CPF on a minimum 100-acre parcel of federally owned, 
available land within the NCR to provide Treasury with a modern 
production facility, resulting in more efficient, streamlined currency 
production, and allowing Treasury to maintain its presence within the 
NCR.
    The Draft EIS analyzes the potential environmental and 
socioeconomic impacts associated with the Proposed Action, including 
cumulative effects. Minimization of adverse effects through avoidance 
and environmentally sensitive design would be used to avoid impacts to 
sensitive resources to the maximum extent practicable. Where these 
efforts are not sufficient to avoid adverse effects, the Draft EIS 
recommends additional mitigation measures that Treasury may implement 
to further reduce identified adverse impacts.
    In support of the EIS, Treasury, with assistance from USACE, is 
conducting site-specific studies in accordance with federal and state 
requirements, such as Sections 404/401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and 
Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The results of 
these studies will inform the design process and allow Treasury to 
minimize potential adverse impacts to the extent feasible.
    As part of Treasury's planning process, it gathered data on 
potential sites in the NCR that could support a new CPF. Treasury 
evaluated each potential site against various screening criteria to 
identify reasonable alternatives. Treasury identified one reasonable 
Action Alternative (the Preferred Alternative) that would meet the 
purpose of and need for the Proposed Action. This Preferred Alternative 
is summarized below and analyzed in detail in the Draft EIS.

Preferred Alternative: BARC 200 Area

    This alternative includes a 104.2-acre parcel of land located in 
BARC's Central Farm in the 200 Area building cluster. The parcel is 
located between Odell Road to the north and Powder Mill Road to the 
south; Poultry Road traverses the site. The parcel, generally 
consisting of grassland, cropland, scattered trees, and abandoned 
buildings, is available for redevelopment. Based on its alternatives 
screening process, Treasury determined that only this parcel met the 
purpose of and need for the Proposed Action, as well as the established 
site screening criteria. The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 
specifically identified this parcel within the BARC 200 Area and 
included a Congressional authorization for the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture to transfer this parcel to Treasury for the purpose of 
constructing and operating the Proposed Action.
    Treasury also carried forward the No Action Alternative for 
detailed analysis in the Draft EIS. While the No Action Alternative 
would not satisfy the purpose of or need for the Proposed Action, 
Treasury retained this Alternative to provide a comparative baseline 
against which to analyze the effects of the Preferred Alternative as 
required under the Council on Environmental Quality's regulations (40 
Code of Federal Regulations 1502.14[c]).
    Resource areas analyzed in the Draft EIS include: Land use; visual 
resources; air quality; noise; geology, topography, and soils; water 
resources; biological resources; cultural resources; traffic and 
transportation; utilities; socioeconomics and environmental justice 
(EJ); hazardous and toxic materials and waste; and human health and 
safety. Treasury dismissed air space and recreation from detailed 
study; through the public scoping process, Treasury determined the 
Proposed Action has no potential to cause significant adverse impacts 
to these resource areas.
    Based on the Draft EIS analysis, potentially significant adverse 
impacts could occur to visual resources, water resources, cultural 
resources, traffic and transportation, and EJ communities (i.e., from 
disproportionate adverse traffic impacts). Impacts to all other 
resource areas would be less-than-significant adverse, negligible, or 
beneficial. Recommended mitigation measures are presented in the Draft 
EIS to reduce potential adverse effects.
    The Preferred Alternative for the Proposed Action would also 
adversely impact wetlands. Accordingly, Treasury prepared a Draft FONPA 
to comply with Executive Order 11990, Protection of Wetlands. As 
described in the Draft EIS, regulatory compliance measures (e.g., 
permitting under Sections 404/401 of the CWA) would be implemented to 
minimize adverse impacts on wetlands.
    Government agencies, Native American Tribes, and the public are 
invited to review and comment on the Draft EIS and Draft FONPA. The 
public comment period begins with the publication of this Notice of 
Availability in the Federal Register and will last for 45 days.
    The Draft EIS and related materials are available on the project 
website at https://www.nab.usace.army.mil/home/bep-replacement-project. 
If you cannot access the Draft EIS materials online, please send a 
request for information via email to: [email protected]; or via 
mail to: ATTN: Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) Project EIS, U.S. 
Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District Planning Division, 2 
Hopkins Plaza, 10th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21201.
    The public comment period also includes a virtual public meeting 
that will provide an opportunity for the public to learn about the 
Proposed Action (i.e., Preferred Alternative), No Action Alternative, 
and environmental impact analysis. This meeting will be held online due 
to COVID-19 restrictions. The virtual public meeting includes two 
parts: (1) An online reading room and (2) a public webinar. The online 
reading room, available for the entire 45-day public comment period at 
https://bep-eis.consultation.ai/ ai/, contains public outreach and 
interpretive materials for the Draft EIS, as well as the Draft EIS 
itself. The public webinar will consist of a 2-hour online meeting 
wherein the BEP will give a brief presentation of the Draft EIS and 
solicit public comments; the specific details of this webinar, 
including the date, time, link, phone number, and password, will be 
announced on the

[[Page 71396]]

project website and in local media at least two weeks in advance of the 
webinar.
    Following the public comment period, Treasury will consider all 
public comments and prepare and publish a Final EIS prior to making any 
decision regarding the Proposed Action. Comments must be received or 
postmarked by December 21, 2020 to be considered during preparation of 
the Final EIS.

David F. Eisner,
Assistant Secretary for Management, Department of the Treasury.
[FR Doc. 2020-24826 Filed 11-6-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4840-01-P