APPENDIX A: FINAL PROGRAMMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (PEA) FOR NSF-FUNDED OOI (JUNE 2008) [This page intentionally left blank.] FinalFinal ProgrammaticProgrammatic EnvironmentalEnvironmental AssessmentAssessment forfor NationalNational ScienceScience Foundation-FundedFoundation-Funded OceanOcean ObservatoriesObservatories InitiativeInitiative (OOI)(OOI) JuneJune 20082008 Acronyms and Abbreviations ~ approximately m meter(s) ADCP acoustic Doppler current profiler MARS Monterey Accelerated Research System ADV acoustic Doppler velocimeter MBARI Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute AGM absorbed glass mat MBES multibeam echosounder AWOIS Automated Wreck and Obstruction MFN Multi-function Node Information System MHz megahertz AUV autonomous underwater vehicle mm millimeter(s) BAP bio-acoustic profiler MMPA Marine Mammal Protection Act BMPs Best Management Practices MPJbox medium-power junction box CAA Clean Air Act MREFC Major Research Equipment and Facilities CDR Conceptual Design Review Construction CEQ Council on Environmental Quality ms millisecond CFR Code of Federal Regulations MSA Magnuson-Stevens Act CGSN Coastal/Global-Scale Nodes NANOOS Northwest Association of Networked cm centimeter(s) Ocean Observing Systems CND Conceptual Network Design NEPA National Environmental Policy Act CO2 carbon dioxide NHPA National Historic Preservation Act CPS Coastal Pelagic Species nmi nautical mile CSN Coastal-scale Nodes NMFS National Marine Fisheries Service CTD conductivity-temperature-depth NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric CWA Clean Water Act Administration CZMA Coastal Zone Management Act NOTMAR Notice to Mariners DA Double Armored NPDES National Pollutant Discharge DART Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting Elimination System of Tsunamis NRC Natural Resources Consultants DAS days at sea NRHP National Register of Historic Places DoN Department of the Navy NSF National Science Foundation DPS Distinct Population Segment O&M Operations and Maintenance EA Environmental Assessment ODAS Oceanographic Data Acquisitions Systems EEZ Exclusive Economic Zone ODEQ Oregon Department of Environmental Quality EFH Essential Fish Habitat OFCC Oregon Fishermen’s Cable Committee EOM electrical-optical-mechanical OOI Ocean Observatories Initiative ESA Endangered Species Act OrCOOS Oregon Coastal Ocean Observing System ESU Evolutionary Significant Unit ORION Ocean Research Interactive Observatory FERC Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Networks FMC Fisheries Management Council OSC Observatory Steering Committee FMP Fisheries Management Plan PND Preliminary Network Design ft foot/feet ROI Region of Influence GSN Global-scale Nodes ROV remotely operated vehicle ha hectare(s) RSN Regional-scale Nodes HAPC Habitat Area of Particular Concern SAUP Sea Around Us Project HDD horizontal directional drilling SBP sub-bottom profiler HMS Highly Migratory Species SHPO State Historic Preservation Officer HPIES horizontal electrometer-pressure-inverted SIP State Implementation Plan echosounder SOP Standard Operating Procedure ICES International Council for the SP Special Applications Exploration of the Sea STAC Science and Technical Advisory Committee ICPC International Cable Protection Committee SWPPP Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan in inches TRF trawl resistant frame IO Implementing Organization UCSD University of California-San Diego IODP Integrated Ocean Drilling Program UNOLS University-National Oceanographic IOOS Integrated Ocean Observing System Laboratory System Jbox junction box µs microsecond JOI Joint Oceanographic Institutions U.S. United States kg kilogram(s) USACE U.S. Army Corps of Engineers kHz kilohertz USC United States Code km kilometer(s) USCG U.S. Coast Guard LPJbox low-power junction box USEPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency LVN Low-voltage Node USFWS U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service LW Lightweight W Watts LWA Light-wire Armored WHOI Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution FINAL PROGRAMMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE OCEAN OBSERVATORIES INITIATIVE JUNE 2008 Prepared by: TEC Inc. Annapolis, MD and Bainbridge Island, WA On behalf of: National Science Foundation Division of Ocean Sciences 4201 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA For additional information, contact: Dr. Shelby Walker, Program Officer National Science Foundation Division of Ocean Sciences 4201 Wilson Blvd Arlington, VA 22203 Phone: (703) 292-4568 E-mail: [email protected] OOI Programmatic EA Final June 2008 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PROPOSED ACTION This Programmatic Environmental Assessment (EA) has been prepared to analyze the potential impacts on the human and natural environment associated with the installation and operation of the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). This EA has been prepared on behalf of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 (42 United States Code §4321 et seq.) and the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations for Implementing the Procedural Provisions of NEPA (Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations §§1500-1508). The NEPA process ensures that environmental impacts of proposed major federal actions are considered in the decision- making process. To provide the U.S. ocean sciences research community with the basic sensors and infrastructure required to make sustained, long-term, and adaptive measurements in the oceans, the NSF‟s Ocean Sciences Division developed the OOI from community-wide, national, and international scientific planning efforts. OOI builds upon recent technological advances, experience with existing ocean observatories, and lessons learned from several successful pilot and test bed projects. The proposed OOI would be an interactive, globally distributed and integrated network of cutting-edge technological capabilities for ocean observatories. This network of sensors would enable the next generation of complex ocean studies at the coastal, regional, and global scale. OOI would complement the broader effort to establish the proposed operationally focused national system known as the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). As these efforts mature, the research-focused observatories envisioned by the OOI would be networked with the IOOS and in turn would be a key and enabling U.S. contribution to the international Global Ocean Observing System and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems. The OOI infrastructure would include cables, buoys, deployment platforms, moorings, junction boxes, electric power generation (solar, wind, fuel cells, and/or diesel), mobile assets (i.e., autonomous underwater vehicles [AUVs] and gliders), and two-way communications systems. This large-scale infrastructure would support sensors located at the sea surface, in the water column, and at or beneath the seafloor. The initiative would also support related elements, such as unified project management, data dissemination and archiving, modeling of oceanographic processes, and education and engagement activities essential to the long-term success of ocean science. The OOI design is based upon three main technical elements across global, regional, and coastal scales. At the global and coastal scales, mooring observatories would provide locally generated power to seafloor and platform instruments and sensors and use a satellite link to shore and the Internet. Up to four Global- scale Nodes (GSN) or buoy sites are proposed for ocean sensing in the Eastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The Regional-scale Nodes (RSN) off the coast of Washington and Oregon would consist of seafloor observatories with various chemical, biological, and geological sensors linked with submarine cables to shore that provide power and Internet connectivity. Coastal-scale Nodes (CSN) would be represented by the Endurance Array off the coast of Washington and Oregon and the Pioneer Array off the coast of Massachusetts. In addition, there would be an integration of mobile assets such as AUVs and gliders with the GSN, RSN, and CSN observatories. PURPOSE AND NEED The OOI would build a network of sensors that would collect ocean and seafloor data at high sampling rates over years to decades. These sensors would be linked to shore using the latest communications ES-1 OOI Programmatic EA Final June 2008 technologies, enabling scientists to reconfigure them from their laboratories and use the incoming data in near-real time in their models. Scientists and educators from around the country, from large and small institutions, and from fields other than ocean science, would be able to take advantage of OOI‟s open data policy and emerging cyberinfrastructure capabilities in distributed processing, visualization, and integrative modeling. Researchers would make simultaneous, interdisciplinary measurements to investigate a spectrum of phenomena including episodic, short-lived events (tectonic, volcanic, biological, severe storm-related), to more subtle, longer-term changes or emergent phenomena in ocean systems (circulation patterns, climate change, ocean acidity, ecosystem trends). Through a unifying cyberinfrastructure, researchers would control sampling strategies of experiments deployed on one part of the infrastructure in response to remote detection of events by other parts of the infrastructure. The long-term introduction of ample power and bandwidth to remote parts of the ocean by the OOI would provide the ocean science community with unprecedented access to detailed data on multiple spatial scales, studying the coastal-, regional-, and global-scale ocean, and using mobile assets (AUVs, gliders, and vertical profilers)