Department of the Army December 23, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The United States Army Pacific (USARPAC) and United States Army Garrison, Hawai`i (USAG-HI) intend to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for modernizing training ranges, training support infrastructure (roads and utilities), and training support facilities in the cantonment area at P[omacr]hakuloa Training Area (PTA) to meet better the readiness needs of military units in Hawai`i. The PEIS will evaluate PTA's long-term vision for modernizing training ranges, training support infrastructure, and the cantonment area to improve a current shortfall in collective (group) live-fire training capabilities for units stationed in Hawai`i. The PEIS also includes an analysis for constructing and operating an Infantry Platoon Battle Area (IPBA) that would include an Infantry Platoon Battle Course (IPBC), Live-fire Shoothouse, and Military Operations on Urban Terrain (MOUT) facility. The IPBC would augment the existing non-standard IPBC (located at Range 10 on PTA), which is undersized and cannot be modernized in its current footprint. The Range 10 IPBC would continue to be used for non-standard collective live-fire training exercises. Many of the training ranges and infrastructure at PTA do not meet current doctrinal training and standard range design requirements. Many of the range assets at PTA also do not have sufficient throughput capacity to meet collective live-fire training requirements. Alternatives analyzed in the PEIS will consider modernizing the training ranges, training support infrastructure, and the cantonment area at PTA, and a No Action alternative. Under the No Action alternative, the Army would continue utilizing current training lands and facilities as efficiently as possible. The PEIS will also present a range of alternatives for the IPBA at either the Western Range Area of PTA, Charlie's Circle, or along the southwest side of Range 20, or to not build and operate the IPBA at all. The primary environmental issues to be analyzed in the PEIS include (but are not limited to) air quality, traffic, biological resources, cultural resources, public services and utilities, wildfires, and hazardous materials and waste. There could be significant impacts to cultural resources, air quality, and risk from igniting wildfires. Also, we anticipate that some federally-listed threatened or endangered plants would be affected. Predicted environmental impacts associated with implementing the initial range project of constructing and operating the IPBA will be analyzed to include an increase in vehicle traffic, air quality impacts, and live-fire activities at currently underutilized range locations at PTA. The proposed action may increase the risk of igniting wildfires or may result in a loss of cultural resources. The Army will identify mitigation measures that could be implemented to reduce or eliminate adverse impacts to the environmental resources.