Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
January 5, 2007
By Margaret Friedenauer, Staff Writer
The Army announced Thursday it is researching the feasibility of stationing a second Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Alaska.
The announcement involves the 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division currently stationed in Hawaii. Local conservation and cultural groups opposed the brigade’s training activities in Hawaii, saying they threatened cultural sites and environmental resources there. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in October that the Army had failed to consider alternatives to the island state when placing the brigade in Hawaii as stipulated under the National Environmental Policy Act.
In response to that ruling, the Army said it will conduct environmental impact statements that examine keeping the brigade in Hawaii or relocating it to Fort Knox, Ky., Fort Carson, Colo., Fort Lewis, Wash., or Fort Richardson in Anchorage. The Army also named Donnelly Training Area as a site of study since that is where the bulk of the brigade’s training would take place if stationed at Fort Richardson.
“In this process we’re basically starting again,” said Robert DiMichele, public affairs officer for U.S. Army environmental command in Maryland. “There’s no presumption that Hawaii will be the answer again.”
Of the five suggested locations, all but Fort Knox have hosted one or more of the five Stryker brigades currently in existence since 2002.
If the Army decides to place the brigade at Fort Richardson, it would be the second Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Alaska.
The Fort Wainwright-based 1/25th, formerly known as 172nd SBCT, returned to Alaska from a 16-month tour in Iraq in late November. It is supposed to be deployable again by October 2007.
The 2/25 is required to be deployable by November 2007.
Both brigades would rely on the Donnelly Training Area near Delta Junction for training.
In a press release, the Army said it will move forward with its scoping process of the five proposed areas, analyzing the possible impacts of the brigade, which includes 3,900 to 4,100 soldiers and their families and 950 to 1,050 vehicles. Up to 330 of those vehicles could be Stryker vehicles, the eight-wheeled, 19-ton rigs from which the brigade draws its name.
The Army Environmental Command said in the press release that placing the brigade in any of the five locations “may have significant environmental impacts from the stationing and training of the brigade to both natural and cultural resources, as well as impacts from construction.
These issues may include soil, water and air quality, airspace conflicts, natural and cultural resources, land use compatibility, noise, social economics, environmental justice, energy use, human health and safety consideration and infrastructure and range and training requirements.”
Those are some of the same concerns that Delta officials and residents have raised in the past when it became clear the 172nd would increase traffic and use of the Donnelly area and in discussions about the Army developing new training ranges for the area.
Delta city administrator Pete Hallgren said Thursday he had not received much information about the Army’s plans to conduct environmental impact studies for those five possible sites, including Fort Richardson and its corresponding training area at Donnelly.
“From what little we heard, it appears that (the topic) would be extremely interesting to Delta Junction and its residents,” he said.
U.S. Army Alaska did not provide a comment.
DiMichele said the Army will run notices in local newspapers about receiving input during the 45-day public comment period. Scoping meetings are planned for each location although specific dates, times and locations for the public meetings in Alaska have not yet been scheduled.
He said the Army hopes to complete draft environmental impact statements on all five locations by late spring.
January 5, 2007
By Margaret Friedenauer, Staff Writer
The Army announced Thursday it is researching the feasibility of stationing a second Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Alaska.
The announcement involves the 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division currently stationed in Hawaii. Local conservation and cultural groups opposed the brigade’s training activities in Hawaii, saying they threatened cultural sites and environmental resources there. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in October that the Army had failed to consider alternatives to the island state when placing the brigade in Hawaii as stipulated under the National Environmental Policy Act.
In response to that ruling, the Army said it will conduct environmental impact statements that examine keeping the brigade in Hawaii or relocating it to Fort Knox, Ky., Fort Carson, Colo., Fort Lewis, Wash., or Fort Richardson in Anchorage. The Army also named Donnelly Training Area as a site of study since that is where the bulk of the brigade’s training would take place if stationed at Fort Richardson.
“In this process we’re basically starting again,” said Robert DiMichele, public affairs officer for U.S. Army environmental command in Maryland. “There’s no presumption that Hawaii will be the answer again.”
Of the five suggested locations, all but Fort Knox have hosted one or more of the five Stryker brigades currently in existence since 2002.
If the Army decides to place the brigade at Fort Richardson, it would be the second Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Alaska.
The Fort Wainwright-based 1/25th, formerly known as 172nd SBCT, returned to Alaska from a 16-month tour in Iraq in late November. It is supposed to be deployable again by October 2007.
The 2/25 is required to be deployable by November 2007.
Both brigades would rely on the Donnelly Training Area near Delta Junction for training.
In a press release, the Army said it will move forward with its scoping process of the five proposed areas, analyzing the possible impacts of the brigade, which includes 3,900 to 4,100 soldiers and their families and 950 to 1,050 vehicles. Up to 330 of those vehicles could be Stryker vehicles, the eight-wheeled, 19-ton rigs from which the brigade draws its name.
The Army Environmental Command said in the press release that placing the brigade in any of the five locations “may have significant environmental impacts from the stationing and training of the brigade to both natural and cultural resources, as well as impacts from construction.
These issues may include soil, water and air quality, airspace conflicts, natural and cultural resources, land use compatibility, noise, social economics, environmental justice, energy use, human health and safety consideration and infrastructure and range and training requirements.”
Those are some of the same concerns that Delta officials and residents have raised in the past when it became clear the 172nd would increase traffic and use of the Donnelly area and in discussions about the Army developing new training ranges for the area.
Delta city administrator Pete Hallgren said Thursday he had not received much information about the Army’s plans to conduct environmental impact studies for those five possible sites, including Fort Richardson and its corresponding training area at Donnelly.
“From what little we heard, it appears that (the topic) would be extremely interesting to Delta Junction and its residents,” he said.
U.S. Army Alaska did not provide a comment.
DiMichele said the Army will run notices in local newspapers about receiving input during the 45-day public comment period. Scoping meetings are planned for each location although specific dates, times and locations for the public meetings in Alaska have not yet been scheduled.
He said the Army hopes to complete draft environmental impact statements on all five locations by late spring.