SBCT Final EIS - Govsupport.us

Chapter 5 – Environmental Consequencesby installing impermeable surfaces such as roadway. They can affect groundwater flow long-term byaltering permafrost or altering surface recharge rates.Oil and gas exploration, extraction, transport, and mining and timber activities also have long andshort-term impacts to groundwater resources. The TAPS and Pogo gold mines both have an increasedpotential to affect local surface and groundwater quality and can alter groundwater flow and recharge.Some management practices do improve surface waters, such as managing for fish and game, or forpublic recreation.Overall, cumulative impacts to water resources associated with Alternative B would be expected to besignificant but mitigable to less than significant.5.6.2.3 Wildfire ManagementSome of the projects contributing to cumulative impacts would occur in or adjacent to areas wherewildland fires could occur. Like Alternative B, the cumulative military projects are expected tocontain mitigation measures to minimize potential environmental impacts involving wildfires. Theimportance of fire for the Alaskan interior ecosystems is recognized but military fires are usuallyquickly controlled. The FRA Fire Department provides the initial response for wildfire suppression,which has traditionally been confined to areas behind the small arms complex. Cumulative firemanagement impacts to the region would mainly result from the addition of new firing ranges, andexpansion of existing or development of new maneuver areas, and population growth in the forestedareas bordering installations.There will be some negative additive wildfire impacts expected from the USARAK mission-essentialprojects planned at FRA (Stout 2002c). The multi-purpose training range, infantry squad battlecourse, infantry platoon battle course locations were all assessed as wildfire risks. USARAK missionessentialconstruction, including the multi-purpose training range and infantry squad battle course, areplanned for FWA. They would be located between Main Post and the Tanana River. These ranges aredescribed as having risk due to the availability of fuels and past fire behavior (Stout 2002a). Theranges are expected to represent an additive cumulative impact to fire management in the area. InJune 2006, the Final Environmental Impact Statement was released for the BAX/CACTF (USARAK2006). The selected location for the BAX and CACTF facilities was the Eddy Drop Zone in DTA.The 1 st SBCT currently stationed at FWA will train at the DTA BAX and CACFT once they areoperational. The 2/25 th SBCT would train at the DTA BAX and CACFT, and conduct maneuvertraining at DTA, thereby contributing to the cumulative increased risk of accidental ignitions at DTA.Overall, stationing the 2/25 th SBCT at FRA would contribute significantly to cumulative wildfire riskto the region. High-risk areas would be treated to reduce the spread of fire, and training would followestablished training protocols, or those created specifically for the 2/25 th SBCT. These measureswould reduce the overall cumulative impact to wildfire risk, but not to less than significant.5.6.2.4 Cultural ResourcesMilitary and non-military activities can affect cultural resources in a number of ways. The nature ofcultural resources makes any impact potentially irreversible or irretrievable. Because culturalinteractions with the landscape are regional in scope, cumulative impacts to cultural resources are alsoregional.Past activities on USARAK lands, such as range construction and modification, creation of roads andtrails, and maneuver training, have impacted cultural resources. Current and future military activitiesFebruary 2008 5-260 2/25th SBCT Final EIS