[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 107 (Monday, June 4, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29935-29936]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-13892]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Army


Preparation of a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement 
(PEIS) on the Chemical and Biological Defense Program (CBDP)

AGENCY: U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Department of 
the Army, DoD.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: The Department of the Army announces its intention to prepare 
a PEIS that will assesses the potential

[[Page 29936]]

environmental impacts associated with the execution of the DoD CBDP 
designed to protect our soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen from the 
evolving chemical and biological threats they may encounter on the 
battlefield. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 
1994 mandated the coordination and integration of all DoD CBDP. The 
Army is the executive agent for the CBDP.

ADDRESSES: Written comments concerning the PEIS should be addressed to 
Dr. Robert J. Carton, Environmental Coordinator, U.S. Army Medical 
Research and Materiel Command, ATTN: MCMR-RCQ-E, 504 Scott Street, Fort 
Detrick, MD 21702-5012.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Robert Carton at (301) 619-2004 or 
by fax at (301) 619-6694.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The mission of the DoD CBDP is to provide 
chemical and biological (CB) defense capabilities to allow the military 
forces of the United States to survive and successfully complete their 
operational missions in battlespace environments contaminated with CB 
warfare agents. If our military forces are not fully and adequately 
prepared to meet this threat, the consequences could be devastating. 
The CBDP to support this mission comprises research, development and 
acquisition activities. Each of the Military Services, the Joint 
Program Office for Biological Defense, and the Defense Advanced 
Research Projects Agency conduct CBDP activities. Some of these CBDP 
activities necessarily involve the use of hazardous chemicals or 
infectious disease agents for research, development, and production 
purposes. The controls on and the potential environmental consequences 
of such use both for the proposed action and for any reasonable 
alternatives will be a primary focus of the CBDP PEIS.
    The CBDP is divided into six commodity areas. Each commodity area 
is managed by one of the Military Services and has an activity focus as 
follows:
    (1) Contamination Avoidance (Army): Pursuit of technological 
advances in CB standoff detection, remote/early warning detection, 
sensor miniaturization, and improved detection sensitivity.
    (2) Individual Protection (Marine Corps) and Collective Protection 
(Navy): Pursuit of technological advances that provide an individual 
with improved vision and voice capabilities, increased protection 
levels, and reduced heat stress over current individual protection 
equipment. Also the pursuit of technological advances that improve 
generic CB protective filters and fans, and advances that reduce the 
weight, volume, cost, logistics, and manpower requirements associated 
with providing individual and collective protection.
    (3) Decontamination (Air Force): Pursuit of technological advances 
in sorbents, coatings, and physical removal, which will reduce 
logistics burden, manpower requirements, and lost operational 
capability associated with decontamination operations.
    (4) Medical Protection (Army): Chemical defense efforts include 
development of pretreatment therapeutic drugs, diagnostic equipment, 
and other life support equipment for protection against and management 
of chemical warfare agents. Biological defense efforts include 
development of vaccines, drugs, and diagnostic medical devices for 
protection against validated biological warfare agents to include 
bacteria, viruses, and toxins of biological origin.
    (5) Modeling and Simulation (Navy): Efforts include meteorological 
models, transport and dispersion models, hazard and casualty 
assessment, computational fluid dynamics, hydrocodes, and constructive, 
live, and virtual simulation.
    The activities take place at numerous military installations and 
contractor facilities throughout the United States. Details concerning 
the CBDP are contained in the ``Chemical and Biological Defense 
Program, Annual Report to Congress, March 2000.'' This report may be 
downloaded in electronic format from the DoD web site at http://www.defenselink.com.
    Although numerous environmental documents, dating back to the Final 
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on the Biological Defense 
Research and Development Program (April 1989), have been prepared 
analyzing the potential environmental consequences of various elements 
of the CBDP, no one document analyzes the potential environmental 
impacts of the full range of these activities. In keeping with the 
purposes of the National Environmental Policy Act, DoD has decided to 
prepare such a document in the form of a PEIS on the CBDP. This 
document will create an overarching framework that will continue to 
ensure fully informed Government decision making within this program 
and provide a single, up-to-date informational resource for the public.
    Specifically, the PEIS will: (1) Update and expand current 
programmatic documentation, providing information on and analysis of 
the changes that have occurred in the biological defense program over 
the last decade; (2) enlarge the scope of the current programmatic 
documentation to include the chemical defense program; (3) provide a 
current programmatic NEPA document that will facilitate future 
Government decision making by allowing future environmental analyses 
under the CBDP to be tiered from it; and (4) share with the public the 
features of this program that demonstrate DoD's commitment to protect 
the environment and to ensure public safety during the execution of 
this operationally mandated program.

Proposed Action and Alternatives

    The proposed action consists of the execution of an integrated 
program designed to protect our soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen 
from the evolving chemical and biological threats they may encounter on 
the battlefield. The No-Action alternative, continuation of current 
CBDP operations as described in and covered by existing environmental 
analyses will be evaluated, as well as all other reasonable 
alternatives identified during the public scoping process.

Scoping Process

    Public comments are solicited concerning the environmental issues 
related to the CBDP. Scoping activities will be designed to facilitate 
public involvement. The scoping process supporting this effort will 
include: establishment of the public CBDP PEIS web site at http://ChemBioEIS.detrick.army.mil; dissemination of public information 
packages; publications in local newspapers; and coordination with 
public interest groups. Public meetings may be held if subsequently 
determined appropriate. These efforts will allow the public to provide 
input regarding the scope of the study and reasonable alternatives. To 
permit sufficient time for the U.S. Army to fully consider public input 
on issues, written or e-mail comments should be mailed or transmitted 
to ensure receipt prior to the end of the scoping period that will be 
identified on the CBDP PEIS web site. E-mail comments may be submitted 
via the CBDP PEIS web site at http://ChemBioEIS.detrick.army.mil.

    Dated: May 29, 2001.
Raymond J. Fatz,
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Environment, Safety and 
Occupational Health), OASA (I&E).
[FR Doc. 01-13892 Filed 6-1-01; 8:45 am]
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