Final Environmental Assessment of Installation Development at Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota

Abstract : Grand Forks AFB uses numerous 319th Air Refueling Wing- (319 ARW) approved plans to project installation development requirements. These plans propose demolition, construction, and infrastructure improvement activities intended to ensure that the installation can sustain its current and future national security operations and mission-readiness status. These projects include installation development projects contained in the General Plan: Grand Forks Air Force Base, ND, and the community of all existing 319 ARW-approved development plans. Grand Forks AFB seeks to improve the continuing installation development process by evaluating in a single EA all actions proposed in the 319 ARW-approved community of plans for installation development, called the Installation Development EA (IDEA). The Proposed Action includes numerous projects, such as demolition of aging facilities, new facility construction, facility upgrades, facility repair and renovation, utilities upgrades community living upgrades, infrastructure upgrades, and recreational upgrades that would be completed or implemented during the next 5 years. The intent of this IDEA is to address the Proposed Action of implementing installation development actions as found in the community of all existing approved plans concerning continuing development on Grand Forks AFB to ensure future mission and facility requirements are met. The scope of the IDEA includes an evaluation of alternatives for the various projects and an analysis of the cumulative effects on the natural and man-made environments. Through this IDEA, Grand Forks AFB provides a constraints-based environmental impact analysis of installation development actions projected over the next 5 years. A constraints approach enables Grand Forks AFB to evaluate environmental concerns that exist throughout the installation and those unique to specific areas of the installation.