[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 139 (Thursday, July 20, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37490-37491]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-17876]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Coast Guard
[CGD 95-060]
Differential Global Positioning System; Brunswick, Maine:
Environmental Assessment and Finding
AGENCY: Coast Guard, DOT.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: The Coast Guard has prepared a programmatic Environmental
Assessment (EA) and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for its
activating a broadcast site of the Differential Global Positioning
System (DGPS) service at Brunswick, Maine. The EA concludes that there
will be no significant impact on the environment and that preparation
of an Environmental Impact Statement will not be necessary. This Notice
announces the availability of the EA and FONSI and solicits comments on
them.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before August 21, 1995.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to the Executive Secretary, Marine
Safety Council, Coast Guard Headquarters, 2100 Second Street SW.,
Washington, DC 20593-0001, or may be delivered to room 3406 at the same
address between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, except
Federal holidays. The telephone number is (202) 267-1477.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: CWO Roger Hughes, United States
Coast Guard Navigation Center, at (703) 313-5889. Copies of the EA
and FONSI may be obtained by calling Mr. Hughes, or by faxing a
request to him at (703) 313-5920. Copies of the EA--without
enclosures--may also be obtained on the Electronic Bulletin Board
System (BBS) at the Navigation Information Service (NIS) in
Alexandria, Virginia, at (703) 313-5910. For information about the
BBS, call the watchstander of NIS at (703) 313-5900.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Request for Comments
The Coast Guard encourages interested persons to submit comments on
the EA and FONSI, which are available as stated in the previous two
paragraphs. It may revise the EA and the FONSI in view of the comments.
If it does, it will announce their availability
[[Page 37491]]
in revised form by a later notice in the Federal Register.
Background
As required by Congress, the Coast Guard is preparing to install
the equipment necessary to implement DGPS service in the northeastern
United States. DGPS uses a new radionavigation technique that improves
upon the 100-meter accuracy of the existing Global Positioning System
to provide an accuracy of 8 to 20 meters. For vessels, this degree of
accuracy is crucial for precise electronic navigation in harbors and
their approaches: It will reduce the number of groundings, collisions,
personal injuries, fatalities, and spills of hazardous cargo resulting
from such incidents.
After extensive study, the Coast Guard has chosen a site at Naval
Air Station (NAS) Brunswick, Maine, instead of the originally planned
site at Bass Harbor Lighthouse, Maine, as a site for installation of
DGPS equipment. Significant concerns had been raised about installing
the equipment at Bass Harbor Lighthouse with regard to the impact on
people visiting the adjacent Acadia National Park and to the scenic
value of the Lighthouse itself. But DGPS signals will be transmitted in
the marine-radiobeacon frequency band--283.5 to 325 KHz--using less
than 25 watts' effective radiated power. Signals transmitted at these
low frequencies and this low power have not been found harmful even to
the immediate environment.
Proposed Installation at NAS Brunswick
(a) Site--NAS Brunswick, near the town of Brunswick, already
accommodates radio antennas and other electronic equipment.
(b) Radiobeacon antenna--The Coast Guard will install a 90-foot
guyed antenna with an accompanying ground plane. A ground plane for
this antenna consists of around 120 radials, each of 6-gauge copper
wire, buried 6 inches or less below the soil and projecting from the
base of the antenna. The best length for a radial is 300 feet; but the
actual length may be shorter, with little or no loss of efficiency, to
make the radials fit within the boundaries of the property. Whenever it
can, the Coast Guard will bury the radials by the cable-plow method so
as to minimize disturbance of the soil.
(c) DGPS antennas--The Coast Guard will mount six receiving
antennas, none higher than 18 inches or broader in base-diameter than
24 inches, on top of an existing building. These antennas support the
primary and backup reference receivers and the integrity monitors.
(d) Equipment shelter--The Coast Guard will house the DGPS
equipment inside an existing building.
(e) Utilities--The Coast Guard will use available commercial power
as the primary source for the antennas, the DGPS equipment, and the
other electronic equipment. It will use a telephone line run to the
site for operating and monitoring from off the site.
Finding
The Coast Guard has determined that implementing DGPS service at
NAS Brunswick will neither have a significant impact on the quality of
the human environment nor require preparation of an Environmental
Impact Statement.
Dated: July 17, 1995.
Rudy K. Peschel,
Rear Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard, Chief, Office of Navigation Safety and
Waterway Services.
[FR Doc. 95-17876 Filed 7-19-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-14-M
