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Army issues notice for Stryker environmental study

HONOLULU — The Army on Thursday issued a public notice announcing its plans to conduct an environmental study for the transformation of a Hawaii-based light infantry unit into a Stryker brigade.

The public has 45 days to comment on the prospect of a Stryker brigade being based in Hawaii or at the other possible locations mentioned by the Army: Alaska, Washington state, Colorado and Kentucky.

The notice in Thursday’s edition of the Federal Register said an environmental impact statement would assess the potential consequences of transforming the 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry (Light), on site in Hawaii or doing so in another state.

The step comes after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in October that the Army violated federal environmental law when it decided to transform the Schofield Barracks brigade in Hawaii without properly considering alternatives elsewhere.

The Army currently is transforming all of its light infantry brigades into fast-response brigades based around its armored Stryker vehicles.

They are assigned to be light enough to load on planes for quick transport to battle zones but heavy enough to protect soldiers from attack. The Army says the brigades are expected to be able to deploy anywhere in the world within four days.

In 2003, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved basing a Stryker Brigade at Schofield Barracks.

Native Hawaiian groups, however, sued to stop the Hawaii work, saying training with the 19-ton Stryker vehicle and its weapons would hurt the environment and desecrate cultural sites.

After the federal appeals court ruled against the Army, military officials revised their plans, saying they would conduct another environmental impact statement study. They also sought permission to conduct the minimum training needed for its 2nd Brigade soldiers to deploy to Iraq late this year as a Stryker unit.

A U.S. District judge last week ruled the Army could move forward with most of the scaled down training it wanted to complete, but the judge ordered it to take special mitigating measures to protect the environment.

In addition to Hawaii, the Army’s new environmental impact statement will examine the possibility of transforming the brigade in Alaska — at Fort Richardson and Donnelly Training Area — and in Washington state at Fort Lewis and Yakima Training Center.

Colorado, home to Fort Carson and the Pinon Canyon Maneuver site, and Kentucky, home to Fort Knox, also will be considered, the Federal Register notice said.

The Army will decide where to base the brigade depending on how well the locations meet training requirements and strategic national defense needs. The study also will examine how the brigade would affect the environments in each location.