[Federal Register: August 31, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 169)]
[Notice]
[Page 50332-50333]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr31au07-58]
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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Department of the Army; Corps of Engineers
Intent To Prepare a Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact
Statement To Analyze a Long Island Sound Dredged Material Management
Plan
AGENCY: Department of the Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DoD.
ACTION: Notice of intent.
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SUMMARY: The Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (DPEIS)
will evaluate the overall impacts of various alternatives identified in
a Long Island Sound Dredged Material Management Plan (LIS DMMP) for
management of dredged material in the Long Island Sound (LIS) region.
The overall goal of the LIS DMMP is to develop a comprehensive plan for
dredged material management in Long Island Sound using a broad-based
public process that protects the environment based on best scientific
data and analysis, while meeting society's need for safe and
economically viable navigation for water-based commerce,
transportation, national security, and other public purposes. The LIS
DMMP will identify potential environmentally acceptable, practicable
management plans that can be utilized by the Corps of Engineers (Corps)
in maintaining Federal navigation projects, as well as various non-
Corps dredging proponents in their analysis of options to manage non-
Corps dredging projects. Some alternative disposal methods may be
implemented on the basis of the PEIS, while others may require
additional analysis at the project level. As specific alternatives are
put in place to implement a given management option, more detailed
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents may be prepared by
the Corps and other Federal agencies, and such NEPA documents will
evaluate specific impacts from implementing a particular management
option.
ADDRESSES: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District, 696
Virginia Road, Concord, MA 01742-2751.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions about the proposed action
and DPEIS can be answered by: Mr. Mike Keegan, (978) 318-8657, e-mail:
Michael.f.keegan@usace.army.mil.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Governors of Connecticut and New York,
in a joint letter dated February 8, 2005, requested the Corps to
develop a regional DMMP for the LIS region. In
[[Page 50333]]
June 2006, the Corps of Engineers, New England District completed a
Preliminary Assessment (PA) to document the need for a comprehensive
DMMP for the LIS region. The PA concluded that successful completion of
a LIS DMMP is critical to the Corps' ability to maintain the region's
civil works navigation projects, and to provide future navigation
improvements to the system of Federal waterways in the LIS region.
Appropriate future cost-effective management methods and future dredged
material capacities must be identified to serve both Federal and non-
Federal project needs in this region for the long-term health of the
region's economy, including its navigation-dependent industries and
activities. The Corps prepares NEPA documents to evaluate the
environmental impacts of the actions and alternatives analyzed in
dredged material management plans. In preparing the current DPEIS, the
Corps expects this document to be used as part of the NEPA analysis for
both Corps and non-Corps future dredging projects through tiering and
incorporation by reference. Issues to be analyzed in the DPEIS may
include potential impacts to: shipping and navigation; commercial and
recreational fisheries and shellfisheries; water quality; sediment
quality; biological resources, including threatened and endangered
species; bioavailability of contaminants; cultural resources;
recreational activities such as use of beaches, refuges, and natural
areas; wetlands; and other potential habitat restoration opportunities.
The DPEIS will be prepared in coordination with other environmental
review and consultation requirements under the Clean Water Act,
National Historic Preservation Act, Endangered Species Act, Coastal
Zone Management Act, and other relevant and appropriate statutes and
Executive Orders.
There are many harbors, channels and navigation-dependent
facilities in Connecticut and New York within Long Island Sound that
must undergo periodic maintenance dredging to ensure safe navigation.
Some harbors occasionally must be deepened beyond historical depths to
meet changing economic and safety needs. In order to manage all of the
dredged material from harbors in the LIS region generated by both
Federal and non-Federal interests in the next twenty years, the DMMP
and DPEIS will be identifying the potential volume of material and
identifying and evaluating alternatives that could be used to manage
such a volume of dredged material. Thus, future Federal and non-Federal
projects can use the DMMP and its associated PEIS to help satisfy legal
requirements of NEPA, the Clean Water Act, and the Marine Protection,
Research, and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA).
The LIS DMMP will include an in-depth planning analysis of
reasonable potential dredged material placement/disposal alternatives,
including open-water disposal, beneficial use, upland disposal, and
treatment technologies, and this analysis will be used as a basis for
future individual permit and project approval decisions related to
alternatives analysis for dredging in the LIS region. To accomplish
this, the LIS DMMP will examine dredging needs, sediment and water
quality, disposal alternatives and environmental impacts on a harbor-
by-harbor basis. Consistent with the Designation Rule for the Western
and Central Long Island Sound Dredged Material Disposal Sites, 40 CFR
228.14(b)(4), the DMMP will be identifying potential procedures and
standards for the use of practicable alternatives for dredged material
disposal in Long Island Sound. The various alternatives and the
information associated with such plans will provide the Corps and other
navigation users with an array of feasible options that will meet their
dredged material management needs.
The LIS DMMP and DPEIS will identify a practicable, comprehensive
and coordinated regional practicable strategy for technically feasible
and environmentally sound management of material dredged from Long
Island Sound. These documents will identify potential environmentally
acceptable, practicable management alternatives that can be utilized by
various dredging proponents in their analysis of options to manage
dredging projects. These alternatives will likely include, but not be
limited to:
Open-water placement.
Alternative management strategies for treating or reusing
dredged materials, including the use of decontamination and sediment
processing technologies.
Beneficial reuse of dredged material such as:
[cir] Open and closed landfills;
[cir] Existing upland dredged material disposal areas;
[cir] Current or proposed transportation improvements;
[cir] Temporary dredged material storage;
[cir] Asphalt, cement and other aggregate use;
[cir] Large scale development use;
[cir] Brownfield remediation;
[cir] Use at closed mines and quarries;
[cir] Placement at beaches for beneficial use;
[cir] Agricultural use;
[cir] Habitat restoration projects.
Full public participation of affected Federal, state, and local
agencies, affected Indian tribes, and other interested private
organizations and parties is invited. All interested parties are
encouraged to submit their names and addresses to (see ADDRESSES), to
be placed on the project mailing list to receive fact sheets,
newsletters and related public notices. The Corps will hold public
scoping meetings later this year or in 2008 at different locations
around the LIS region. Topics and issues to be addressed in the DPEIS,
identified in part from responses to this Notice of Intent, will be
summarized. The public is invited to attend the scoping meetings and
identify additional issues that should be addressed in the DPEIS. The
actual date, place and time of the scoping meetings will be announced
in respective local newspapers and on the Corps New England District
Web page.
It is estimated that the Draft PEIS will be made available to the
public in the Fall of 2012.
Dated: 22 August 2007.
Lieutenant Colonel Andrew B. Nelson,
Deputy District Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England.
[FR Doc. 07-4274 Filed 8-30-07; 8:45 am]
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