The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment announces the availability of the Draft Finding of No Significant Impact and the Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for Implementation of the Net Zero program at U.S. Army installations.

The PEA evaluates the potential environmental impacts from the range of energy, water, and solid waste projects that could be implemented in support of Net Zero.

Not all potential projects discussed in this PEA will be implemented and some of these may have already been implemented at pilot and non-pilot installations to help achieve existing Federal and U.S. Army environmental mandates.

The PEA's analysis is at a programmatic U.S. Army-wide level; installation- or project-specific analysis will be performed and documented for proposed installation-level actions.

The Net Zero program is comprised of changes in management practices and behavior as well as multiple possible projects and technologies to enhance resource efficiency with a broad focus on increased sustainability. It is based on the following concepts:

• Producing at least as much energy on the installation from renewable sources as it uses annually
• Limiting the consumption of freshwater resources and returning water back to the same watershed so as not to deplete the groundwater and surface water resources of that region in quantity or quality
• Reducing, reusing, and recovering waste streams, converting them to resource value with zero solid waste disposed in landfills

The U.S. Army does not consider Net Zero as a stand-alone program and intends to leverage existing resources and collaborate with the private sector to strive toward the Net Zero program's energy, water, and waste reduction goals.

The U.S. Army also recognizes current fiscal constraints and will allocate limited existing resources to support implementation of Net Zero where fiscally responsible.

Three alternatives were evaluated in the PEA: (1) no action, (2) implement Net Zero Army-wide, and (3) strategically implement Net Zero based on mission needs, consumption, and existing resource constraints while still achieving existing sustainability mandates (the preferred alternative).

The U.S. Army identified no significant environmental impacts associated with implementation of Net Zero that cannot be mitigated to a level of insignificance with site-specific best management practices or other mitigation measures.

Interested Tribes, federal, state, and local agencies, organizations, and the public are invited to provide written comments.

The public is being notified of the U.S. Army's Final PEA through a Notice of Availability (NOA), which will be published in the Federal Register. Public comments will be accepted until September 12, 2012 and may be sent to:

Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Army (Energy & Sustainability)
Attn: SAIE-E&S
110 U.S. Army Pentagon, Room 3E464
Washington, DC 20310-0110