Federal Register: National Environmental Policy Act; Sounding Rockets Program; Poker Flat Research Range

April 13, 2011 at 9:34 am | Posted in Space Law | Leave a comment

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

NASA published a Notice of intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and to conduct scoping for continuing sounding rocket operations at Poker Flat Research Range (PFRR), Alaska (PDF) in today’s Federal Register (75 Fed. Reg. 20715-20717):

SUMMARY: Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act, as amended, (NEPA) (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations for Implementing the Procedural Provisions of NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), and NASA’s NEPA policy and procedures (14 CFR part 1216, subpart 1216.3), NASA intends to prepare an EIS for its continued use of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (UAF) owned and managed PFRR, outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and UAF will serve as Cooperating Agencies as they possess both regulatory authority and specialized expertise regarding the Proposed Action that will be the subject of the EIS.

The purpose of this notice is to apprise interested agencies, organizations, tribal governments, and individuals of NASA’s intent to prepare the EIS and to request input regarding the definition of reasonable alternatives and significant environmental issues to be evaluated in the EIS.

In cooperation with BLM, UAF, and USFWS, NASA will hold public scoping meetings as part of the NEPA process associated with the development of the EIS. The scoping meeting locations and dates identified at this time are provided under SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION below.