SBCT Final EIS - Govsupport.us

Appendix D ⎯ Responses to Comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statementity and readiness of its units without having to rely on host nation support. Inaccordance with this defense policy guidance, the Army is in the process ofbringing 44,500 Soldiers home from overseas stationing locations in Europeand Korea. Stationing the 2/25 th at a foreign overseas location is not in accordancewith security and defense policy directives and decisions of the NDS andQDR. The consideration of overseas stationing locations is therefore not includedin this document.The SBCT stationed in Germany is there because Germany is an importantstaging area for Army commitments in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.The U.S. Army Europe Commander is responsible for the theater security andhas requested an SBCT to meet his theater security obligations. There are currentlytwo HBCTs in Germany that are ultimately scheduled to leave Europeand be stationed at Whites Sands Missile Range, New Mexico and Fort Bliss,Texas.53. Why were visual resources evaluated in the 2004 FEIS but not evaluated in this DEIS? Theproposed trail from Kawaihae Harbor to PTA will be a 30-foot wide gravel and asphalt trailthat will affect the Makua view plane from various locations along Queen Kaahumanu Hwy.,which is listed as an area of natural beauty in the Hawaii County General Plan.Response: As described in Chapter 4, the analysis of effects described in the DEIS wasbased on the Army’s 2006 guidance for conducting impact analyses, whichwas released after the 2004 Transformation FEIS and ROD were published.The analysis focuses on a standard set of VECs that does not include visual resources.Although additional VECs can be identified for a specific analysis,scoping did not identify visual resources as an analysis-specific VEC to beconsidered in this EIS.This document supplements the 2004 Transformation FEIS which looks at visualresources on PTA at section 8.3. There are no changes to the impacts tothis resource as described in the 2004 EIS.54. The 2004 Transformation FEIS indicates the Army would consult with local landowners toprovide joint use of plantation roads after construction of the PTA Trail. However, this DEISindicates the PTA Trail will only be accessible to the public and landowners during state andnational emergencies. Please clarify whether the public and private landowners will have accessto the portion of the PTA Trail rated as having a high ordnance and explosives hazardlevel and how the Army will prevent public access to these high hazard areas.Response: The Army will acquire non-exclusive easements from the landowners for thedesign, construction, maintenance, and use of the PTA trail. Landowners willhave access to the trail and may allow access by others as long as such accessdoes not interfere with the Army’s easement rights. Access will most likely becontrolled with a series of gates. The Army will clear the trail alignment ofmunitions and explosives of concern in order to construct the trail. Warningsigns will be posted along the trail in areas of moderate to high risk from UnexplodedOrdnance.55. Explain how the Army determined that the following two mitigation measures listed in theROD for the 2004 FEIS are not feasible to implement: 1) build a vehicle wash facility atFebruary 2008 D–21 2/25th SBCT Final EIS