Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 161 / Friday, August 19, 2011 / Notices 51957 

and Game, 78078 Country Club Drive, 

Suite 109, Bermuda Dunes, CA 92203, 

(760) 200–9372. For additional 

information, please call Rick Davis of 

the Davis Group at (760) 610–2072 or 

e-mail 

CAFishandGame@davisgroupca.com. 

Alternatively, you may contact the 

Corps and DFG project managers 

identified above. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This Draft 

EIS/EIR has been filed with the 

Environmental Protection Agency to be 

published in the Federal Register. The 

review period for the Draft EIS/EIR will 

begin from the date of publishing the 

Notice of Availability in the Federal 

Register, which is expected to be on 

August 17, 2011. Comments on the Draft 

EIS/EIR will be accepted 60 days later, 

until October 17, 2011. 

Dated: August 8, 2011. 

R. Mark Toy, P.E., 

Colonel, US Army, Commander and District 

Engineer. 

[FR Doc. 2011–21239 Filed 8–18–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3720–58–P 

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 

Department of the Navy 

Notice of Intent To Prepare an 

Environmental Impact Statement for 

the Medical Facilities Development and 

University Expansion at Naval Support 

Activity Bethesda, Bethesda, Maryland 

and To Announce Public Scoping 

Meetings 

AGENCY: Department of the Navy, DoD. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: Pursuant to section (102)(2)(c) 

of the National Environmental Policy 

Act (NEPA) of 1969, the regulations 

implemented by the Council on 

Environmental Quality (40 Code of 

Federal Regulations [CFR] parts 1500– 

1508), the Department of the Navy 

(DoN) announces its intent to prepare an 

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) 

to evaluate the potential environmental 

effects associated with the proposed 

actions at Naval Support Activity (NSA) 

Bethesda to implement the 

Congressional mandate in the Fiscal 

Year (FY) 2010 National Defense 

Authorization Act (NDAA) to achieve 

the new statutory world-class standards 

for military medicine at the Walter Reed 

National Military Medical Center at 

Bethesda (WRNMMCB) by providing 

enduring facilities commensurate in 

quality, capability and condition as 

those provided by the Base Realignment 

and Closure (BRAC) investment and 

address the space and operational 

limitations at the Uniformed Services 

University of the Health Sciences 

(USUHS). The proposed actions, which 

will enhance and support but not add to 

the missions of the installation, medical 

center or USUHS, include: (1) The 

demolition of five (5) hospital buildings 

and reconstruction of a single 5-story 

facility and associated parking garage, 

utility capacity upgrades, and temporary 

medical facilities to provide 

uninterrupted patient care during 

construction (Medical Facilities 

Development) and (2) the expansion of 

the USUHS and associated parking 

garage. 

These proposed actions are two 

components of the 2012 NSA Bethesda 

Master Plan that the DoN is currently 

updating and this EIS analyzes the 

implementation of these components. 

The 2012 NSA Bethesda Master Plan 

reflects ongoing projects previously 

considered under NEPA as well as 

potential future development 

opportunities at NSA Bethesda. The EIS 

will evaluate the cumulative effects of 

the proposed actions in the context of 

the known, ongoing activities and 

identify the potential programmatic 

effects of the proposed actions in the 

context of the potential future 

development opportunities. Therefore, 

the EIS will analyze the environmental 

effects of the 2012 NSA Bethesda Master 

Plan relative to the implementation of 

the proposed actions in this EIS. For the 

potential future development 

opportunities, the DoN will ensure the 

appropriate NEPA review is completed 

at such time as the projects are proposed 

for implementation. 

The proposed actions at NSA 

Bethesda consist of: (1) The Medical 

Facilities Development, which includes 

demolition of Buildings 2, 4, 6, 7, and 

8 and construction of a single, 5-story 

replacement building in the medical 

center core, construction of an 

associated parking garage, utility 

capacity upgrades, construction of 

temporary medical facilities to maintain 

uninterrupted patient care during 

construction, and internal renovations 

to Buildings 1, 3, 5, 9, and 10; and (2) 

the University Expansion, which 

includes construction of a new 

classroom/research facility and 

associated parking garage at USUHS. 

The proposed actions would not add to 

the existing missions at NSA Bethesda 

and would occur subsequent to the 2005 

BRAC Law mandated relocation of the 

Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s 

(WRAMC) tertiary (sub-specialty and 

complex care) medical services to 

National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) 

at NSA Bethesda in September 2011. 

With the relocation, the NNMC will be 

renamed the WRNMMCB. 

NSA Bethesda is the action proponent 

and the DoN is the lead agency for the 

proposed actions. Joint Task Force 

National Capital Region Medical (JTF 

CapMed), NNMC, and USUHS, are 

tenants of NSA Bethesda and are the 

stakeholders for these activities. 

The DoN is initiating a 45-day public 

scoping period to identify community 

interests and specific issues to be 

addressed in the EIS. The public 

scoping period starts with the 

publication of this Notice of Intent. The 

DoN will hold two public scoping 

meetings to inform the public of the 

proposed actions and receive comments. 

Comments, both written and oral, will 

be collected at each of the two public 

scoping meetings. Each of the public 

scoping meetings will consist of an open 

house session followed by a live 

presentation and an opportunity for the 

public to present their comments. To 

ensure that the full range of issues 

related to the proposed actions will be 

addressed, representatives from the DoN 

will be available to solicit comments 

from all interested parties during the 

public scoping meetings. Following 

future publication of the draft EIS, at a 

time to be determined, further public 

meetings will be held to address 

comments on the draft document. 

Dates and Addresses: The two public 

scoping meetings will be held on the 

following dates: 

1. Wednesday, September 7, 2011, 5 

p.m. to 9 p.m., Bethesda Marriott, 5151 

Pooks Hill Road, Bethesda, Maryland 

20814. 

2. Monday, September 12, 2011, 1 

p.m. to 5 p.m., Bethesda Marriott, 5151 

Pooks Hill Road, Bethesda, Maryland 

20814. 

Additional information concerning 

meeting times and locations are 

available on the NSA Bethesda Web site 

at: http://www.bethesda.med.navy.mil/

nsa/eis.aspx. Public scoping meeting 

schedules and locations will also be 

announced in local newspapers. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Sandy Dean, NSA Bethesda Public 

Affairs Office; e-mail: 

NNMC.NSABETHESDAEIS@med.

navy.mil; telephone number: 301–295– 

5727. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NSA 

Bethesda is a 243-acre health care, 

medical education and research 

installation located in Bethesda in 

Montgomery County, Maryland and is 

the home of the world renowned 

NNMC. The installation provides 

logistical and service support to all of its 

tenant commands, including JTF 


jlentini on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
51958 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 161 / Friday, August 19, 2011 / Notices 

CapMed, NNMC, and USUHS. In 

September 2011, with the completion of 

2005 BRAC mandated relocation of 

WRAMC tertiary medical services to 

NNMC and its transformation to 

WRNMMCB, the facility will become 

the premier DoD medical center offering 

intensive and complex specialty and 

subspecialty medical services for the 

most seriously injured personnel from 

all military services. WRNMMCB and 

USUHS will also provide training and 

post-graduate level education to the 

military medical community and serve 

as a critical medical research center. 

The purpose of the Medical Facilities 

Development is to implement the 

Congressional mandate from the FY2010 

National Defense Authorization Act to 

achieve the new statutory world-class 

standards for military medicine at the 

WRNMMCB by providing enduring 

facilities commensurate in quality, 

capability and condition as those 

provided by the BRAC investment. The 

Medical Facilities Development is 

needed because current space is 

insufficient to meet world class 

standards such as decompression to 

single occupancy patient rooms, a stateof-the-art simulation center, and a 

health innovation center. The purpose 

of, and need for, the Medical Facilities 

Development was identified subsequent 

to the programming for BRAC 2005, 

which was specifically designed to 

accommodate the transfer of WRAMC to 

WRNMMCB and was never intended to 

address the mission capability or 

functionality of the existing 

infrastructure. 

The primary purpose of the 

University Expansion is to address the 

significant space and operational 

limitations that exist for education and 

research activities due to the 

fragmented, aging, and inefficient 

infrastructure and enable USUHS to 

serve as the core academic health 

research center at WRNMMCB. The 

University Expansion is needed because 

the USUHS operations are currently 

fragmented between off-site leased 

space in Montgomery County, Maryland 

and other dispersed buildings on NSA 

Bethesda. Additionally, the University 

Expansion will address the most recent 

Liaison Committee on Medical 

Education accreditation requirements, 

and provide adequate education and 

research space to meet Military Health 

System commitments to deliver training 

and post-graduate level education to the 

military medical community. 

The Medical Facilities Development 

resulted from an iterative planning 

process which resulted in the 

Comprehensive Master Plan (CMP) 

developed by JTF CapMed in response 

to the FY10 NDAA Congressional 

mandate, which identified and 

evaluated alternatives based on the 

departmental needs anticipated at the 

WRNMMCB after the completion of the 

BRAC-mandated relocations in 

September 2011. The CMP development 

process identified the proposed action 

as the best approach to meet the 

Congressional mandate for world class 

facilities commensurate in quality, 

capability and condition with the BRAC 

investment. The Medical Facilities 

Development, as described in the CMP, 

entails demolition of Buildings 2, 4, 6, 

7, and 8 (approximately 326,000 square 

feet (SF)) of and construction of a single, 

5-story facility totaling approximately 

563,000 SF in the same basic footprint. 

The Medical Facilities Development 

also proposes utilities and power 

capacity upgrades, internal renovations 

in Buildings 1, 3, 5, 9 and 10, and the 

use of the northwest parking lot for 

temporary medical facilities to maintain 

uninterrupted patient care during the 

construction period. 

The Medical Facilities Development 

also proposes, in the lawn in front of 

Building 1, the construction of an 

approximately 203,000 SF, 500-space 

underground parking garage, which in 

addition to the medical center, will 

serve the overall parking needs at NSA 

Bethesda. The EIS will analyze three 

alternative sites at NSA Bethesda for the 

underground parking garage: The 

warehouse area in the northeast corner, 

the Taylor Road site in the northeast 

area, and H–Lot in the south area, 

respectively. 

The EIS will consider two alternative 

sites for the University Expansion: 

Alternative 1 and Alternative 2 are 

south and west, respectively, of the 

existing USUHS campus. Under either 

of the alternative sites, the University 

Expansion would entail an 

approximately 341,000 SF education 

and research facility and an 

approximately 144,000 SF, 400-space 

parking structure that will serve USUHS 

and the overall parking needs across 

NSA Bethesda. 

The EIS will also consider the No 

Action Alternative, which will evaluate 

the impact at NSA Bethesda in the event 

that the proposed actions do not occur. 

The EIS will address the potential 

impacts of the proposed actions on the 

number of staff, patients, and visitors at 

NSA Bethesda. In addition, the EIS will 

evaluate the potential direct, indirect, 

short-term, long-term, and cumulative 

impacts to the human and natural 

environment, to include potential 

impacts to topography, geology, and 

soils; water resources, biological 

resources, air quality, noise, 

infrastructure and utilities, traffic and 

transportation, cultural resources, land 

use, socioeconomics, environmental 

justice, and public health and safety. 

Known areas of concern associated with 

proposed actions include providing the 

required space and facilities at NSA 

Bethesda in consideration of historic 

characteristics of the installation, and 

the impact to local traffic and on-base 

parking associated with personnel and 

patient visits. Other recent changes at, 

and in the vicinity of, NSA Bethesda 

will be evaluated to ensure 

consideration of the cumulative impacts 

of the proposed actions in the context of 

the ongoing and programmed projects as 

well as reasonably foreseeable projects 

identified in the 2012 Master Plan. 

The EIS will also consider the 2012 

NSA Bethesda Master Plan relative to 

the implementation of the Medical 

Facilities Development and University 

Expansion. The EIS will evaluate the 

cumulative impacts of the proposed 

actions in the context of the 

programmed projects already in 

progress and the programmatic effects of 

the potential future development 

opportunities identified in the 2012 

NSA Bethesda Master Plan. 

The DoN encourages agencies and the 

public to provide written comments in 

addition to, or in lieu of, oral comments 

at the public scoping meetings. To be 

most helpful, comments should clearly 

describe specific issues or topics that 

the EIS should address. Written 

comments must be postmarked within 

45 days of the date of publication of this 

notice in the Federal Register and 

should be mailed to the address below. 

Comments may also be submitted via email and/or the Web site listed below, 

within 45 days of the date of publication 

of this notice in the Federal Register. 

Requests for inclusion on the EIS 

mailing list may also be submitted to: 

Sandy Dean, NSA Bethesda Public 

Affairs Office, 8901 Wisconsin Avenue, 

Bethesda, Maryland 20889; via e-mail at 

NNMC.NSABETHESDA

EIS@med.navy.mil; via telephone at 

301–295–5727; or visit the project Web 

site at http://www.bethesda.

med.navy.mil/nsa/eis.aspx. 

Dated: August 15, 2011. 

J.M. Beal, 

Lieutenant Commander, Judge Advocate 

General’s Corps, U.S. Navy, Federal Register 

Liaison Officer. 

[FR Doc. 2011–21216 Filed 8–18–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3810–FF–P 


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