CX-100620 Categorical Exclusion Determination

Unobtrusive Multi-static Serial LiDAR Imager (UMSLI) for Wide-area Surveillance and Identification of Marine Life at MHK Installations
Award Number: DE-EE0006787
CX(s) Applied: A9, B3.3, B3.16
Water Power Program
Date: 05/19/2016
Location(s): FL
Office(s): Golden Field Office

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to provide federal funding to Florida Atlantic University (FAU) to develop and test an optical monitoring system known as an UMSLI, that is suitable for marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) full-project lifecycle observation (baseline, commissioning, and decommissioning), with automated real-time classification of marine animals.

DOE completed a previous NEPA review (GFO-0006787-001, CX A9, 09/16/2014) that included project management (Task 5); system design, specification, and assembly (Task 1); in-lab demonstration (Task 2); and development of video imaging software and classification systems (Subtasks 4.1-4.5).

This NEPA determination applies to activities associated with prototype demonstration in an operational environment (Task 3) and software integration, validation, hardening, and review (Subtasks 4.6-4.9). Some administrative work such as project planning, tracking and reporting would be completed from FAU’s Boca Raton, Florida campus. Software development work would be undertaken at the University of Florida’s (UF’s) Gainesville, Florida campus. In-water demonstration would mobilize from FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Campus in Ft. Pierce, FL and would occur in a 70 square km area of the Atlantic Ocean, 22 km (11.8 nm) east of the Fort Pierce inlet (map available in the project management center (PMC)). Some project activities would take place in marine navigable waters, but would not require permits from either the U.S. Coast Guard or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.