Environment

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires projects involving a federal action to be evaluated for potential environmental impacts. All reasonable design alternatives and their potential impacts will be documented. A public meeting was held in October 2008 where the public had the opportunity to provide comments on alternatives and potential environmental impacts. The public will have the opportunity to comment on the project and its impacts throughout the project’s design. An additional public meeting will occur for the project. It will be advertised on this website as well as in local newspapers.

Some of the environmental features evaluated to date relate to water quality and aquatic life, wetland areas, noise, hazardous waste sites, historic resources, archaeological sites, and threatened and endangered species. Other on-going studies being evaluated include cumulative and secondary impacts, and construction impacts on local communities. Information on these resources and potential impacts to them from the project continue to be assessed.