Environmental Impact Statement for Training and Exercises at Airfields in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 was enacted to address concerns about environmental quality. NEPA's main objectives are as follows:

• Ensure that Federal agencies evaluate the potential environmental impacts of proposed programs, projects, and actions before decisions are made to implement them,
• Inform the public of proposed Federal activities that have the potential to affect the human environment, including the natural and physical environments, and
• Encourage and facilitate public involvement in the decision-making process.

NEPA requires a Federal agency to analyze impacts from a major proposal and its alternatives and provides the public with opportunities to participate in the process.

An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is the most detailed analysis under NEPA. An EIS is a detailed public document describing a proposed action, all reasonable alternative actions that were considered, and the environmental impacts of implementing the proposed action and reasonable alternatives.

Public scoping is an early and open process for identifying issues and alternatives to be addressed in an EIS and determining who (e.g., government agencies and the public) is interested in a proposed action. Public outreach is conducted as part of the scoping process to provide information to interested parties and to receive comments on the proposed action, alternatives, and potential impacts. Comments received during the scoping period are considered during preparation of the Draft EIS.

This project is not related to the CJMT EIS, which was completed by the U.S. Department of the Navy, U.S Marine Corps. This EIS is a separate NEPA review being prepared by the DAF for proposed training and exercises at airfields in the CNMI. The Navy’s CJMT EIS evaluated a different proposed action involving the development and use of training ranges and associated infrastructure to support Marine Corps training activities on Tinian. In contrast, the DAF’s proposal focuses on conducting training and exercises at existing airfields in the CNMI to support DAF operational readiness.

Although both projects are located within the CNMI and involve military training, they are independent proposals with different purposes, operational activities, and decision-making processes.