AST Facilities - Environmental Reviews - Green Bank Observatory

Green Bank: Statement of NSF Record of Decision

On July 26, 2019, the National Science Foundation (NSF) signed its Record of Decision for the Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. This important step concludes the agency's decision-making process with respect to the general path forward for facility operations in a budget-constrained environment, and provides the basis for a future decision regarding a new collaborator.

NSF issued its ROD following an extensive environmental impact analysis and broad input from the public and the scientific community, including the National Academies 6th Decadal Survey released in 2010, and the NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences Portfolio Review Committee Report released in 2012.

The ROD formalizes NSF’s selection of Alternative A: Collaboration with interested parties for continued science- and education-focused operations with reduced NSF funding (Agency-Preferred Alternative). The selection of this Alternative will allow important research at GBO to continue while simultaneously addressing NSF’s need to reduce its share of the operations cost within the context of scientific priorities and a constrained budgetary environment.

The Agency-Preferred Alternative, which is also the environmentally preferable Action Alternative, was selected and documented in the ROD. The ROD also reflects NSF's consideration of the outcomes of its comprehensive compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (54 U.S.C. § 306108 (formerly 16 U.S.C. § 470f) and its implementing regulations found at 36 C.F.R. Part 800) and the Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. §§ 1531 - 1544 and its implementing regulations at 50 C.F.R. Part 402).

Record of Decision: English