The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has completed a series of four public meetings designed to receive feedback on a potential Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) site in the eastern United States.
The three military installations under consideration for the GMD site are: Fort Custer Training Center in western Michigan, Fort Drum in northern New York and Camp Ravenna Joint Military Training Center in northeastern Ohio. MDA held two public meetings in Michigan the week of June 20, followed by one meeting in New York June 28 and one meeting in Ohio June 30. The Michigan installation had two meetings because it has two places under consideration.
(Photo courtesy Missile Defense Agency Photo)
“We had approximately 50 to 100 people attend” each meeting, MDA spokeswoman Leah Garton said. “We received a variety of comments from the public at each location. The communities were mostly very positive and supportive.”
The meetings focused on MDA’s draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the three locations. Feedback from the meetings, along with written comments submitted by the public by July 18, will be considered as MDA writes the final environmental impact statement (EIS).
Among the draft’s findings is that all three locations have wetlands that would be affected by a missile defense site. If the U.S. government decides to build the site, MDA said it will coordinate with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state environmental officials “to determine appropriate mitigations for wetland impacts.”
Other “resource areas” addressed in the draft EIS include: air quality, airspace, biological and cultural resources, environmental justice, geology and soils, hazardous materials and hazardous waste management, health and safety, land use, noise, socioeconomics, transportation, utilities, water resources, and visual/aesthetics.
The United States already has two GMD interceptor sites in Alaska and California to defend against a limited number of long-range ballistic missiles, such as those that could be fired from North Korea or Iran. Congress has directed the Department of Defense to evaluate eastern U.S. locations for a potential third site to improve protection against Iranian missiles. A decision to proceed with building a third site has not yet been made.