Final Programmatic Environmental Assessment - IPAWS Construction Project

The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) was established in 1963 to replace the nation's first alert and warning system called CONELRAD. The EBS allowed the President or State and local officials to send out alerts while radio stations continued to operate on their assigned frequencies. In 1979 the President transferred the responsibility of maintaining the EBS from the Department of Commerce to FEMA through Executive Order 12127. In 1990 the Primary Entry Point Advisory Committee (PEPAC) was established by FEMA to help manage thirty-four (34) EBS Primary Entry Point (PEP) stations across the U.S. In 1994 the Emergency Alert System (EAS) was initiated and replaced the EBS by 1997. Other warning systems were developed throughout the Federal government such as National Warning System, the Digital EAS program with the Association of Public Television Stations, the Web Alert and Relay Network (WARN) pilot, and the Geo-Targeted Alerting System (GTAS) with NOAA. The September 15, 1995 Presidential Memorandum to the Director of FEMA, regarding the Emergency Alert System (EAS) Statement of Requirements, requires FEMA to: i) Act as the White House Military Office's Executive Agent for the development, operations, and maintenance of the national-level EAS; ii) Bring the Primary Entry Point (PEP) system up to full operational capability and ensure compatibility with the state and local EAS; iii) Phase out dedicated circuitry and associated equipment of the Emergency Action Notification (EAN) network and incorporate the network nodes into the national level EAS as required; iv) Prepare guidance concerning the definition and use of Priority Four, and enhance procedures to disseminate National Emergency Information Programming; v) Conduct tests and exercises; vi) Ensure the national-level EAS keeps pace with emerging technologies through the use of low-cost innovative techniques. On June 26, 2006 the President issued Executive Order (EO) 13407 requiring "an effective, reliable, integrated, flexible, and comprehensive system to alert and warn the American people in situations of war, terrorist attack, natural disaster or other hazards to public safety and well being." The Integrated Public Alert and Warning (IPAWS) Program Management Office (PMO) was established in 2007 to execute the policy established in EO 13407. The IPAWS Program goal is to identify, develop, and/or adopt appropriate standards to enable implementation of interoperable public alert and warning systems, to identify technologies and standards that improve security, reliability, addressability, accessibility, interoperability, coverage, and resilience of the public alert and warning systems, and to integrate these capabilities via a common IPAWS Aggregator. The IPAWS Program is organized in to several major concurrent and incremental projects that in coordination and partnership with other federal, state, and local stakeholders integrate and improve all aspects of public alert and warning. This PEA will also facilitate FEMA's compliance with other environmental and historic preservation requirements by providing a framework to address the impacts of actions typically funded to aid in national preparedness. FEMA coordinates and integrates to the maximum extent possible the review and compliance process required under similar requirements such as the Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the eight step process of the Executive Order 11988 and 11990, and others. This PEA provides a framework on how FEMA integrates these requirements with NEPA. Finally, the PEA provides the public and decision-makers with the information required to understand and evaluate the potential environmental consequences of these national preparedness actions. This PEA meets the NEPA goals of impact identification and disclosure and addresses the need to streamline the NEPA review process in the interest of national preparedness.