Environment

Department of the Navy Base Realignment and Closure Office (BRAC PMO) provides environmental programmatic management at closing installations with support from Chief of Navy Operations (CNO) / Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC), Headquarters, Marine Corps Facilities and Services (HQMC LF), and Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) in accordance with the Transfer of Custody and Control of Real Property Agreement (Appendix C of The Department of the Navy Base Realignment and Closure Implementation Guidance) and Operating Agreements. For environmental programs, BRAC PMO ensures environmental compliance under applicable federal and state environment laws and regulations (i.e. Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, etc.) BRAC PMO executes environmental restoration responsibilities at facilities closed under BRAC.

NEPA

The BRAC process requires Military Departments to analyze the environmental impacts of proposed disposal in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). In preparing that analysis, the Military Department must develop the proposed Federal action, which will include the LRA's redevelopment plan, and then consider a range of reasonable disposal alternatives and assess their environmental effects in the context of the reasonably foreseeable reuse of the property. In the record of decision, the LRA’s redevelopment plan will be given substantial deference. The Military Department will work closely with the LRA in preparing the NEPA analysis.

In addition to NEPA, we must also consider compliance with related environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and the Clean Water Act, in order to protect resources such as threatened and endangered species, historic structures, archaeological sites and wetlands.

If the Department of the Navy cannot certify in an Environmental Assessment that there will be no significant impact, it must prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). An EIS is a detailed statement on environmental impacts that includes formal public participation. At the end of the EIS process, the Department of the Navy issues a Record of Decision (ROD) concerning disposal and redevelopment of the base closure property. The ROD represents a necessary element of the property conveyance process, since disposal and redevelopment cannot begin until it has been issued. This ROD is separate from, and in addition to the ROD required for environmental cleanup.

Environmental Cleanup

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) requires the federal government to warrant that all remedial action required to protect human health and the environment has been taken prior to the disposal of surplus federal property. It also requires that any additional remedial or corrective action discovered after disposal will be done by the United States. This statute is the legal basis for the Navy's obligation to cleanup environmental contamination on base closure property. A ROD, approved by environmental regulators, documents the remedy that will be used to perform the environmental cleanup.