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Chapter 40-Protection of Environment

Availability of documents to other affected Federal agencies and affected nations, where necessary to:

(i) enable the agency to decide and act promptly as and when required;

(ii) avoid adverse impacts on foreign relations or infringement in fact or appearance of other nations' sovereign responsibilities, or

(iii) ensure appropriate reflection of:

(1) diplomatic factors;

(2) international commercial, competitive and export promotion fac

tors;

(3) needs for governmental or commercial confidentiality;

(4) national security considerations;

(5) difficulties of obtaining information and agency ability to analyze meaningfully environmental effects of a proposed action; and

(6) the degree to which the agency is involved in or able to affect a decision to be made.

(c) Agency procedure under Section 2-1 may provide for categorical exclusions and for such exemptions in addition to those specified in subsection (a) of this Section as may be necessary to meet emergency circumstances, situations involving exceptional foreign policy and national security sensitivities and other such special circumstances. In utilizing such additional exemptions agencies shall, as soon as feasible, consult with the Department of State and the Council on Environmental Quality.

(d) The provisions of Section 2-5 do not apply to actions described in Section 2-3(a) unless permitted by law.

SECTION 3

3-1. Rights of Action. This Order is solely for the purpose of establishing internal procedures for Federal agencies to consider the significant effects of their actions on the environment outside the United States, its territories and possessions, and nothing in this Order shall be construed to create a cause of action.

3-2. Foreign Relations. The Department of State shall coordinate all communications by agencies with foreign governments concerning environmental agreements and other arrangements in implementation of this Order.

3-3. Multi-Agency Actions. Where more than one Federal agency is involved in an action or program, a lead agency, as determined by the agencies involved, shall have responsibility for implementation of this Order.

3-4. Certain Terms. For purposes of this Order, "environment" means the natural and physical environment and excludes social, economic and other environments; and an action significantly affects the environment if it does significant harm to the environment even though on balance the agency believes the action to be beneficial to the environment. The term "export approvals" in Section 2-5(a)(v) does not mean or include direct loans to finance exports.

3-5. Multiple Impacts. If a major Federal action having effects on the environment of the United States or the global commons requires preparation of an environmental impact statement, and if the action also has effects on the environment of a foreign nation, an environmental impact statement need not be prepared with respect to the effects on the environment of the foreign nation.

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AIRBORNE LAW ENFORCEMENT ROLE, MARIJUANA ERADICATION PROGRAM IN

ARKANSAS

(By Trooper John A. Sparks, Pilot-Investigator, Arkansas State Police) In the past ten years the state of Arkansas has become a haven for aerial drug smugglers. Arkansas is situated well within the range of a twin engine airplane equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks, flying from within the Mexican interior. Arkansas also has numerous unattended airstrips, which will easily accommodate a heavily loaded twin engine airplane. Couple the above with the fact that Arkansas probably has the least amount of enforcement personnel available in any of the southern United States and you can see why it would be advantageous to a smuggler to conduct his operation in the state of Arkansas.

Over the past few years it has been determined that Arkansas has a new and completely different (although closely related) problem. The new problem is the domestic production and exportation of marijuana. The same factors which make Arkansas an excellent area to facilitate the importation of illegal drugs also make it ideal for the manufacture and exportation of "home grown" marijuana. An additional benefit Arkansas offers the growers of marijuana is the many thousands of acres of state and national forests in which to hide and scatter their illicit crops. Through statistics compiled by the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration and various other local agencies, it has been estimated that Arkansas is probably the number two state in the continental United States in the production of domestic marijuana. According to D.E.A. estimates, only California outproduces Arkansas.

To attempt to remedy this problem, in the summer of 1982 D.E.A. provided funding for a program to attempt to eradicate the marijuana crop before it made its way to the streets. This assistance came in the form of approximately $25,000 to be distributed among state and local law enforcement agencies. This funding was added to by contributions from those local agencies. The money was available for use in the following categories.

(1) Aircraft (rental & operation)

(2) Ground vehicles (4d's., 3 wheeler, etc.).

(3) Expendable equipment (snake bite kits, anti-snake leggings, binoculars, film, etc.).

(4) Personnel expense (per diem, overtime, etc.).

(5) Informants.

As you can see, aircraft came high on the priority list, as well they should. Without the assistance of aircraft, an operation of this sort could not enjoy near the success that it should. The following aircraft were utilized during this operation. (1) Cessna T-41 and Cessna 210, provided by D.E.A.

(2) Cessna 182, provided by the Arkansas State Police.

(3) Hughes 500 helicopter, provided by D.E.A.

(4) Several UH-IH Huey helicopters, provided by the Arkansas National Guard. (5) Various other type aircraft, which were rented by the local law enforcement agencies.

Although the aircraft available was not the world's best air force, it was adequate to handle the task at hand.

In order to put the limited aircraft support to the best use, a selection and training program was initiated to provide a pool of trained observers and pilots. All pilots involved were, by virtue of their jobs, selected for the training program. The aerial observers were elected from personnel who met the following requirements: (1) Certified law enforcement officers.

(2) Background in drug enforcement.

(3) Experienced in obtaining search warrants.

(4) Able to attend court and testify.

(5) Have excellent eyesight.

(6) Be able to ride in an airplane, (flying tight circles at low altitudes on very hot days) without losing their lunch.

After this pool of qualified observers was selected, they and the pilots involved were given classroom instruction in the following areas:

(1) Aerial recognizance of marijuana fields (done so by lectures from experienced D.E.A. pilots and studing photographs of actual fields).

(2) Lectures discussing current court rulings in reference to search warrants obtained through aerial observation (as of this writing there have been court rulings that set forth the following limitations of search warrants obtained from aerial observation: (1) Use of binoculars prohibited, (2) No greater than 50mm lens may be used on cameras, and (3) Aircraft must maintain at least 1,000 AGL).

The next step of the training involved actual "in the air" work. Through informants and other intelligence sources, several marijuana fields were located and confirmed by ground personnel. The pilots were briefed on the location of these marijuana fields. The pilots then flew over these known fields and pointed them out to the observers. Next, the observers were flown over an area where a known marijuana field was located, but it was not pointed out to them. The observers who were able to identify the marijuana fields were certified for obtaining search warrants and court testimony

During the time that the pilots and observers were being trained, the ground personnel were busy obtaining equipment and compiling, through intelligence networks, a list of known and suspected locations of marijuana fields throughout the state. This information was coordinated by the drug enforcement unit of the Arkansas state police in cooperation with the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Pilots and observers were then assigned to fly these areas and cooperate with the ground personnel in location and seizing the contraband.

For economical reasons, fixed wing aircraft were assigned to overfly areas of suspected marijuana fields and to attempt to narrow down the location of the fields. After this was done the helicopters were assigned to pinpoint the fields and to give close support to the ground personnel. Both fixed and rotor wing aircraft were used to observe fields, which had been reported to be boobytrapped, prior to the ground personnel attempting to enter them. Aircraft were also assigned to be on hand during the execution of search warrants, in order to monitor the movement of possible defendants. This provided added safety for the ground personnel and helped raise the percentage of arrests.

This operation was highly successful and resulted in the seizure of several hundred thousand mature marijuana plants, some as much as twenty-five feet tall. Also, due to the added support of the aircraft, a higher than normal percentage of growers were captured. During this operation 1,180 felony arrests were made. As of this writing, there has been a 100 percent conviction rate from those cases. All of this was accomplished without a single incident of personal injury to any of the participating law enforcement personnel. And, there were no incidents or accidents involving participating aircraft.

Due to the success of this program and to the increasing domestic marijuana problem in the state of Arkansas, this program will be repeated in the summer of 1983. This year D.E.A. will be able to provided approximately $50,000. Because of the added funding and the experience gained from last year, the program should enjoy much greater success this year. And you can be assured that aircraft will be at the top of the priority list again this summer.