T.F. Green Airport Improvement Program - FEIS Chapters - PVD

T.F. Green Airport Improvement ProgramEnvironmental Impact Statement and Final Section 4(f) EvaluationDirect Social and Housing ImpactsAlternative B2 would require acquiring more residential units (67 units) than Alternative B4 (11 units) forconstruction, both representing less than one percent of the City of Warwick’s housing stock. Alternative B4would result in higher number of residential acquisitions (69 units total by 2020) for noise mitigation comparedto Alternative B2 (36 units total by 2020). Alternative B2 would result in the highest number of acquisitions forthe RPZs (134 units) compared to Alternative B4 (60 units).5.5.4.7 Social and Socioeconomic Impact Avoidance and MinimizationAlternative B2 was developed in part to avoid land acquisition near Main Avenue (which would result in therelocation of residences and businesses and, therefore, property tax losses) and to minimize land acquisition tothe residential communities both south of Main Avenue and north of the Airport.Due to the significant impacts associated with the other alternatives, Alternative B4 was developed to minimizeimpacts to residential communities and businesses and Buckeye Brook south and north of the Airport. It wasdeveloped to minimize the amount of construction-related residential and commercial land acquisition bylimiting construction as much as possible to land located south of the Runway 5 End already owned by RIAC.Under Alternative B4, designing the Runway 5 End in order to allow for effective and efficient realignment ofMain Avenue would avoid the need to tunnel Main Avenue.5.5.5 Environmental Justice and Children’s Health and Safety Risks Impact AssessmentThis section presents the results of the environmental justice and children’s health and safety risk impact assessmentsfor the No-Action Alternative and Alternatives B2 and B4 in 2015, 2020, and 2025. As documented in Section 5.7, AirQuality, and Section 5.11, Water Quality, Alternatives B2 and B4 would not result in significant impacts to air quality,drinking water, recreational waters, or other products or substances that a child might come into contact with oringest. The T.F. Green Airport Improvement Program therefore would not result in any health or safety impacts tochildren, including any that are disproportionate to such impacts on the general population. This issue is not furtheranalyzed in this FEIS. Impacts to environmental justice populations from land acquisitions and increases to noiselevels are assessed in the following sections. The mandatory or voluntary land acquisition may cause significantcommunity disruption and, therefore, are considered in this evaluation. This analysis addresses minority andHispanic populations separately; the Hispanic population was not added to the total minority population to avoidthe possibility of double counting.5.5.5.1 No-Action AlternativeThere are three minority census blocks and two Hispanic census blocks that fall within the land acquired underthe Completed Part 150 VLAP. There are no low-income census block groups within the Completed Part 150VLAP Areas. Table 4-18 in Chapter 4, Affected Environment, shows the environmental justice populations withinthe Completed Part 150 VLAP.This FEIS assumes that RIAC would continue the Part 150 Program as part of the analysis to acquire those homesimpacted by noise (exposed to DNL 70 dB and above due to Airport operations) unrelated to the proposedImprovement Program. The Current Part 150 VLAP is based on the FAA-approved NEM (dated July 27, 2010).Table 5-66 shows the environmental justice populations within the acquisition areas for the Current Part 150 VLAP.Chapter 5 - Environmental Consequences 5-109 July 2011\\mawatr\ev\09228.00\reports\FEIS_Final_July_2011\PVD_CH05_Environmental_Cons_JUL_2011.doc