Welcome to the Environmental Homepage for the South Suburban Airport (SSA) Project.

This site has been created to keep you informed of the environmental issues associated with the planning and development of SSA. The site is designed to be informative as well as dynamic, and will be updated as work progresses - so visit often!

The U.S. Congress enacted the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969 to encourage Federal agencies to make decisions that are based on understanding environmental consequences, and take actions that protect, restore, and enhance the environment. Nearly all federal activities affect the environment in some way. NEPA requires Federal agencies to treat environmental impacts as a primary criterion in evaluating a proposed action. NEPA mandates that before Federal agencies make decisions, they must consider the impact of their actions on the environment. The regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) implementing NEPA ensure that information on the social and environmental impacts of any federally funded action is available to public officials and citizens before decisions are made and before actions are taken.

On this site you will have the opportunity to learn about the environmental process associated with the South Suburban Airport. You can explore the steps involved in creating an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) including the alternatives analysis, the scoping process, the concept of tiering, and the environmental impacts that are considered in an EIS. You can also find maps of the area, a glossary of relevant terms, and links and resources to relevant Federal, state and local agencies, and laws. Additionally, Adobe Acrobat PDFs of the completed Tier 1 EIS, the Tier 1 EIS Record of Decision (ROD), the Tier 2 Scoping Document and more are available for downloading. Click on any of the links to the left to get started!