THE PURPOSE OF THIS JOINT PUBLIC NOTICE IS TO
ANNOUNCE THE SCHEDULING OF A JOINT PUBLIC HEARING,
AND TO
SOLICIT COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ABOUT THE WORK
DESCRIBED BELOW. AT THIS TIME, NO DECISION HAS BEEN MADE
AS TO
WHETHER
OR NOT PERMITS WILL BE ISSUED.
THE
HEARING
WILL
BE HELD AT THE FOLLOWING TIME AND LOCATION:
THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2014
The Community College of Baltimore
County, Essex
7201 Rossville Boulevard
Administration Building, Room 137
Baltimore, MD 21237-3899
6:00 pm-7:00
pm Poster Session
7:00 pm Public Hearing
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
Baltimore District (USACE)
and the Maryland Department of the
Environment
(MDE) joint public
hearing provides members
of the
public the opportunity to
present views, opinions,
and information which
will be considered by the USACE and MDE in
evaluating the permit application.
The purpose of the hearing is for the USACE and MDE to receive
oral or written
comments
that will enable them to
evaluate the impacts
of the proposed
project on the public interest. All interested parties, including representatives of Federal, State, and
local governments
and private individuals
and
organizations,
are invited to
be present or to be represented.
Each will be given an opportunity to express their views regarding the
proposed project.
Prior to the public
hearing,
from
6:00 pm to 7:00 pm,
a poster session
will be
held
where the public will have
an opportunity to review exhibits and
ask
general questions of the applicant, Aberdeen
Proving Ground, and their representatives
regarding the permit application and the Environmental Assessment. Representatives from the
USACE and MDE will also be available
during the poster session.
Beginning
at 7:00 pm, the formal public
hearing will begin
with
agency statements, followed by public testimony.
Please
note that a time
limit of three minutes per speaker may be
set,
depending on the number of speakers, to
ensure that all interested parties have an opportunity to
voice their views. The public
hearing will be recorded
and
transcribed.
Anyone who is hearing impaired and/or is
non-English speaking who wishes to attend the public
hearing should notify Mr.
Jon Romeo at 410-962-6079
or in writing to his address below.
All requests for an oral, sign
language, or non- English language
interpreter must be received by January
3, 2014. To the extent possible and feasible, an interpreter will be
provided.
The USACE and MDE have received and
are evaluating a
joint permit application
as described
below for Department of
the Army authorization
pursuant to Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (33
U.S.C. 1344) and State authorization
pursuant Title 5, Subtitle 9
(Nontidal Wetlands) of the Environment Article, Annotated
Code of Maryland.
APPLICANT: U.S. Army Garrison Aberdeen Proving
Ground
Attn:
Colonel Gregory R. McClinton
305
Aberdeen Boulevard
Aberdeen
Proving Ground, Maryland 21005
LOCATION: Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving
Ground (APG) at Graces Quarters and G-Field. The Graces Quarters site is located at the
southern end of Graces Quarters Road, southeast of the Hammerman Area of
Gunpowder Falls State Park in Baltimore County.
The G-Field site is located within the boundary of the
Edgewood Area of APG on the west side of Ricketts Point Road, north of Maxwell
Point Road in Harford County. The
wetlands at the project site drain to Swaderick
Creek and Gunpowder River. These streams are
classified by the State of Maryland as Use II estuarine
waters.
WORK:
APG proposes to construct
two sites, of up to approximately 17 acres each, for the operational exercise
of the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System
(JLENS). Each site requires construction
of an aerostat pad and associated overlapping structures, parking, utilities, support
buildings and stormwater management facilities. The project would permanently
impact a total of 160,020 square feet (3.67 acres) of nontidal wetlands and
221,637 square feet (5.09 acres) of nontidal wetland buffer. Impacts are associated with filling,
excavating, grading, removing or destroying vegetation, and building
structures. At Graces Quarters, the
project would permanently impact a total of 93,807 square feet (2.15 acres) of
nontidal emergent wetlands and 137,540 square feet (3.16 acres) of nontidal wetland
buffer. At G-Field, the project would permanently
impact a total of 61,947 square feet (1.42 acres) of nontidal forested wetlands
and 77,534 square feet (1.78 acres) of nontidal wetland buffer. Upgrades to an existing ammunition bunker
required with this project would result in the permanent conversion of 4,266
square feet (0.10 acres) of nontidal forested wetland to emergent wetland and
permanently clear vegetation from 6,563 square feet (0.15 acres) of nontidal wetland
buffer. No impacts to streams are
associated with this project. The
applicant is required to mitigate for the permanent wetland impacts. Impacts to nontidal forested wetlands require
2:1 mitigation, impacts to nontidal emergent wetlands require 1:1 mitigation,
and conversion of nontidal forested wetlands to nontidal emergent wetlands
requires 2:1 mitigation. In total, the
applicant is responsible for 226,233 square feet (5.19 acres) of wetland mitigation.
The applicant has submitted
a preliminary,
conceptual mitigation plan to compensate for the
proposed, unavoidable
permanent impacts in the
amount of 226,233 square feet (5.19 acres)
of nontidal wetlands. The wetland
mitigation proposal is to create
a minimum of 132,426 square feet (3.04 acres) of forested non-tidal wetlands
and 93,807 square feet (2.15 acres) of emergent nontidal wetlands on Carroll
Island as mitigation for the loss of non-tidal wetlands due to the JLENS
project. Carroll Island, located within APG boundaries in southeastern
Baltimore County, Maryland, is an 855-acre island lying between Saltpeter and
Seneca Creeks. The Gunpowder River lies to the east, and Hawthorn Cove and the
Chesapeake Bay lie to the southwest. The proposed compensatory mitigation site
to be constructed on Carroll Island lies north of Carroll Island Road.
All work will be
completed in accordance with
the enclosed plans.
PURPOSE:
To establish a
land-based exercise site in the National Capitol Region for a three year
Homeland Defense exercise that assesses operational effectiveness of the JLENS
system for defense against cruise missiles and other forms of low altitude
aerial threats in a homeland defense scenario.
WRITTEN COMMENTS: To be
included in
the
official record,
written comments
and information provided
by interested parties must be received
by the
USACE and MDE by the closing date of this notice’s
comment period, January
31, 2014, to receive consideration. The
mailing addresses for submission of written comments are:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Maryland
Department of the
Environment
Baltimore
District Wetlands
and
Waterways
Program
Attn: Mr.
Jon Romeo, CENAB-OP-RMN Attn: Ms.
Danielle Spendiff
P.O. Box 1715 1800
Washington
Blvd., Suite 430
Baltimore,
Maryland 21203-1715
Baltimore,
Maryland 21230-1708
If you have
any questions concerning this matter, please
contact Mr. Jon Romeo, USACE at
(410) 962-6079 or by
email at jon.romeo@usace.army.mil, and Ms. Danielle Spendiff,
MDE at (410) 537-3731 or by email at danielle.spendiff@maryland.gov.
The decision
whether to
issue
a permit will be
based
on an evaluation of the probable impacts, including cumulative
impacts of the
proposed activity on the public interest. That decision will reflect the national concern for both protection and
utilization of important resources. The benefit, which may reasonably be expected to
accrue from the proposal,
must
be balanced against its reasonably foreseeable detriments. All factors, which may be relevant to
the
proposal will be considered,
including the cumulative
effects thereof; among those are
conservation,
economic, aesthetics,
general environmental concerns,
wetlands, cultural values, fish
and wildlife values, flood
hazards, flood plain
values, land
use, navigation,
shoreline erosion and accretion, recreation,
water supply and conservation, water quality,
energy needs,
safety, food and fiber production, mineral needs, and consideration of property ownership and in
general, the needs and
welfare of the people.
The evaluation of
the impact of the
work described above on the
public interest will include the
application
of
the Clean Water Act Section 404(b)(1) Guidelines promulgated by the Administrator, U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency, under
authority of Section
404 of the Clean Water Act.
Comments
are being solicited from the public; Federal, State, and
local agencies and officials; Indian Tribes; and other interested parties in
order to consider and evaluate
the
impacts of this
proposed activity. Any comments
received
will be
considered by the USACE
and MDE to determine
whether to issue, modify,
condition or deny each
agency’s permit for this proposal. To
make
this
decision,
comments are used
to assess impacts
on endangered species, historic properties, water quality, general environmental effects,
and
the other public
interest factors listed above. Comments
are
used in the
Corps Baltimore District, Operations Division preparation
of an Environmental Assessment and/or an Environmental Impact Statement pursuant to
the
National Environmental Policy Act. Comments provided will become part of the
public record
for
this action. Comments
are
also used to determine the
overall public interest of the proposed activity.
SECTION 401 WATER QUALITY CERTIFICATION: The applicant is required to
obtain a Water Quality
Certification,
(WQC) in
accordance with
Section 401 of the
Clean Water Act from MDE, the Section
401 certifying
agency. Any written comments concerning the
work described above
which relate to the WQC
must
be received
by the Wetlands
and
Waterways
Program,
Maryland Department of the
Environment, Montgomery Park Business
Center,
1800 Washington Boulevard, Suite
430,
Baltimore, Maryland 21230-1708
within the
comment period as specified above
to
receive consideration.
MDE has a
statutory limit of one
year
from the date
of
this public notice to
make its
decision.
COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM: The applicant
has certified in
this application that
the proposed activity complies with
and will
be conducted in a manner consistent
with Maryland’s federally-approved
Coastal Zone Management Program (CZMP) as required by Section 307
of the Federal Coastal Zone
Management Act
of 1972. Public comments relating to consistency must be received by the Wetlands and
Waterways
Program, Maryland Department
of the
Environment, Montgomery Park Business Center, 1800
Washington Boulevard, Suite 430, Baltimore, Maryland, 21230-1708,
within
the comment period as specified above.
By this
public
notice, the
USACE is requesting the State concurrence
or objection to
the applicant’s consistency certification. It
should be noted that the CZMP
has a statutory limit of 6
months to make
its consistency determination.
The applicant must obtain any other State and
local permits/approvals which are required for the
proposed
activities.
A preliminary review of this application indicates that the proposed work will not affect Federal listed threatened
or endangered species or their critical habitat, pursuant to Section 7 of the
Endangered
Species Act,
as amended. As
the evaluation
of
this application
continues, additional information may become
available which could modify this preliminary determination.
Review of the latest published
version of the National Register of Historic Places indicates that no registered
properties listed
as eligible for inclusion, therein,
are located at the
site of the proposed work. A Phase I archaeological investigation
revealed that no National Register eligible archaeological resources are
located at either site.
NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY OF DRAFT FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL
ASSESSMENT AND DRAFT FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT: A draft final Environmental Assessment
(EA) and draft Finding of No Significant Impact (FNSI) has been prepared by the
JLENS Product Office and U.S. Army Garrison Aberdeen Proving Ground for the
JLENS project at APG, Maryland. JLENS is an Army program that supports Joint
Integrated Air and Missile Defense, providing continuous over-the-horizon
surveillance and precise location data to Army and Joint networks. It enables protection from aircraft, unmanned
aerial vehicles, large caliber rockets, and surface moving targets. The
Proposed Action is to construct and operate two aerostats (tethered
helium-filled aircraft) and associated infrastructure and support facilities on
APG for a three-year homeland defense operational exercise, from 2014 through
2017. The two proposed sites on APG would be Graces Quarters in Baltimore
County and G-Field at the APG Edgewood Area (APG-EA) in Harford County. It is
anticipated that up to approximately 17 acres at each location would be
impacted by the construction activities.
Included in the Proposed Action is a modification to the existing
restricted airspace at APG. A small
portion of the existing airspace, R4001A and R4001B, would be used to establish
a restricted airspace, R4001C, for the operational exercise. This EA has been
prepared to evaluate the Proposed Action and the No Action Alternative. Resources addressed in the EA include, land use,
visual aesthetics, airspace, geological resources, air quality, noise, water
resources, coastal zone and critical area, biological resources, cultural
resources, hazardous, toxic and radioactive substances, utilities, stormwater
and drainage, fire protection, transportation, and socioeconomics and
environmental justice. The results, as
found in the EA, show that the Proposed Action would not have a significant
adverse impact on the environment. At
the conclusion of the public comment period, it is anticipated that a FNSI
would be appropriate and would be signed for the JLENS project. An Environmental Impact Statement therefore,
is not deemed necessary to implement the Proposed Action, as determined by the
JLENS Product Office and U.S. Army Garrison Aberdeen Proving Ground.
The draft final EA
and draft FNSI are available for review and comment for 45 days from
publication of this notice. Copies may
be found online at http://www.apg.army.mil/apghome/sites/directorates/dpw/
. The documents can also be found at the
following locations:
Baltimore County
Public Library Baltimore
County Public Library
Essex Branch Perry
Hall Branch
1110 Eastern
Boulevard 9685
Honeygo Boulevard
Essex, Maryland 21221 Perry
Hall, Maryland 21128
Harford County Public
Library Harford
County Public Library
Aberdeen Branch Edgewood
Branch
21 Franklin Street 629
Edgewood Road
Aberdeen, Maryland
21001 Edgewood,
Maryland 21040
Kent County Public
Library
408 High Street
Chestertown, Maryland
21620
Additionally, copies
can be obtained by contacting Mr. Arnold O’Sullivan by mail at USAGAPG, ATTN: Arnold O'Sullivan, 4304 Susquehanna Avenue,
3rd Floor Suite B, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, 21005-5001, or by
email at arnold.v.osullivan.civ@mail.mil. Comments on the draft final EA and draft FNSI
may be submitted to Mr. Arnold O’Sullivan at the mailing address or email
address listed above no later than 45 days from the publication of this notice.
It is requested that
you communicate this information concerning the proposed work to any persons
known to you to be interested, but may not have received a copy of this public
notice.