NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY
Flight Experiment 1 (FE-1) Final Environmental Assessment (EA)/Overseas Environmental Assessment (OEA)
and
Final Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI)
On behalf of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, the US Department of the Navy (US Navy) Strategic Systems Programs announces the availability of the FE-1 Final EA/OEA and Final FONSI. The Final EA/OEA assesses the potential impacts associated with one experimental flight test from Kauai Test Facility (KTF), Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), Kauai, Hawai’i, to the US Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA), Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site.
Pre-launch activities at KTF include final vehicle and experiment assembly, preflight checks, and demonstration of system performance. None of these activities will take place at night and lights will not be turned on at night for any FE-1 activities during the period of concern for Newell’s shearwaters. If program activities are required to occur at night (outside the Newell’s shearwater period of concern), the US Navy will coordinate these activities through PMRF to comply with the Dark Skies policy and avoid disorienting Newell’s shearwaters with artificial lights.
The US Navy developmental payload would impact at USAKA with three possible impact zone scenarios. The first possible, and preferred, impact location would be a land impact on Illeginni Islet. The second possible impact zone would be in the deep water region southwest of Illeginni Islet. The third possible impact zone would be within the Kwajalein Missile Impact Scoring System area southeast of Gagan Islet. The proposed flight test would occur within a year after signing the Final FONSI.
Nesting and roosting seabirds at Illeginni Islet have the potential to be affected by elevated sound pressure levels, direct contact, and human disturbance. Mitigation measures will be employed to deter birds from nesting or roosting in the impact area. While Illeginni Islet has shoreline habitat suitable for sea turtle nesting, no sea turtle nests or nesting activity have been observed on Illeginni in over 20 years. Therefore, the US Navy concluded that the probability of sea turtle nesting in the area is so low as to be discountable and that FE-1 activities may but are not likely to adversely affect nesting sea turtles. The USFWS concurred with this determination.
Direct contact from payload impact as well as disturbance from human activity and equipment operation may adversely affect coral colonies, individual mollusks, and humphead wrasses at Illeginni Islet. The National Marine Fisheries Service issued a Biological Opinion including an Incidental Take Statement with Reasonable and Prudent Measures to minimize impacts and monitor levels of incidental take that are incorporated into the flight test and the EA/OEA.
Requests for a copy of the Final EA/OEA
and/or the Final FONSI should be directed to:
Strategic Systems Programs
ATTN: Mr. Fred Chamberlain
1250 10th Street, SE
Washington Navy Yard, DC 20374-5127
The Final EA/OEA incorporated comments received on the Draft EA/OEA from US and RMI agencies and responses are provided in the Final EA/OEA. No comments were received from the public.
Interested parties can also download the Final FONSI and the Final EA/OEA on the internet at https://tbe.com/Flight_Experiment_1_Documents_for_Public_Review
or at the following locations:
Grace Sherwood Library
Kwajalein Island
USAG-KA
Roi-Namur Library
Roi-Namur Island
USAG-KA
Republic of the Marshall Islands
Environmental Protection Authority
Majuro, RMI
Republic of the Marshall Islands
Environmental Protection Authority
Ebeye, RMI
Lihue Regional Library
4344 Hardy Street
Lihue, HI 96766
Waimea Public Library
P.O. Box 397
Waimea, HI 96766
Defense Technical Information Center
8725 John J. Kingman Road
Suite 0944
Ft. Belvoir, VA 22060-6218
(TGI1028263 9/21, 9/22, 9/23/17)
