Revised Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for Base Realignment at the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, Craven County, NC

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Navy

Revised Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact

Statement for Base Realignment at the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry

Point, Craven County, NC

Pursuant to Section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental Policy

Act of 1969, as implemented by the Council on Environmental Quality

regulation (40 CFR Parts 1500-1508), the Department of the Navy

announced on November 15, 1993, its intent to prepare an Environmental

Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate the environmental effects of the

realignment of Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point, Craven

County, North Carolina. The proposed action is being conducted in

accordance with the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990

(Public Law 101-510) and the specific 1993 base closure and realignment

decisions which became effective in September

1993. The proposed action involves the relocation of F/A-18 aircraft

and dedicated personnel from Naval Air Station Cecil Field,

Jacksonville, Florida, to MCAS Cherry Point.

The purpose of this notice is to supplement the information

provided in the original Notice of Intent which stated that an existing

outlying airfield may need to be renovated or a new outlying airfield

may need to be developed to provide for the increased training needs.

Three scoping meetings were held in Eastern North Carolina on December

7, 8, and 9, 1993, and the process of preparing the EIS was begun.

Since these initial scoping meetings, the Navy has been studying this

issue to determine reasonable outlying airfield sites.

A tiered screening approach progressively narrowed down a number of

potential areas meeting the general requirements for an outlying

airfield to a short list of nine candidate areas. These included: the

three existing Marine Corps Outlying Landing Fields (MCOLF) in eastern

North Carolina [MCOLF Atlantic in Carteret County, Marine Corps

Auxiliary Landing Field Bogue in Carteret County, and MCOLF Oak Grove

in Jones County]; a site identified jointly with the United States

Forest Service within the Croatan National Forest along Black Swamp

Road; and five potentially suitable privately owned sites.

The final step in the screening process involved utilizing a set of

specific operational and environmental criteria to evaluate each of the

nine candidate sites. From this evaluation, three sites are considered

to be reasonable sites and will be evaluated in detail in the EIS.

These sites are three of the five privately owned sites: an

agricultural site which lies east of Bay City Road in Beaufort County

at the Beaufort County/Pamlico County Line; a site in northern Beaufort

County, east of Route 32 at the Beaufort County/Washington County line;

and a site within Carteret County north of Beaufort in the Open Grounds

Farm area. The other sites are not considered reasonable because of the

potential for significant environmental impacts and incompatible land

uses.

Agencies and the public are invited and encouraged to provide

additional written comments on the proposed OLF development areas

discussed in this notice. Comments should clearly describe specific

issues or topics which should be addressed in the EIS. Written comments

and/or questions regarding this notice should be mailed to: Commander,

Atlantic Division, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, 1510 Gilbert

Street, Norfolk, Virginia 23511-2699 (Attn: Mr. Jim Haluska, Code

2032JH), telephone (804) 445-2307. All comments should be received no

later than August 29, 1994.

Dated: July 26, 1994.

Lewis T. Booker, Jr.,

LCDR, JAGC, USN, Federal Register Liaison Officer.

[FR Doc. 94-18510 Filed 7-28-94; 8:45 am]

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