[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 80 (Wednesday, April 26, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20482-20483]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-10191]



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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Intent To Prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) 
for San Francisco Bay to Stockton, Phase III (John F. Baldwin) 
Navigation Channel Deepening

AGENCY: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: John F. Baldwin is part of the San Francisco Bay to Stockton, 
California Navigation Project authorized by the River and Harbor Act of 
1965 as contained in Public Law 89-298, Eighty-Ninth Congress, dated 29 
October 1965. The authorization includes improving and deepening 
existing navigation channels from the San Francisco entrance channel to 
Port of Stockton. To fulfill the requirements of Section 102(2)(c) of 
the National Environmental Policy Act, the Corps of Engineers has 
determined that the proposed action may have significant effect on the 
quality of the human environment and therefore requires the preparation 
of an Environmental Impact Statement.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information about the 
project and the alternatives, contact Mr. Peter LaCivita, Chief, 
Environmental Planning Section, Corps of Engineers San Francisco 
District, 211 Main Street, Rm 918 (CESPN-PE-PP), San Francisco, CA 
94105-1905. Phone number (415) 744-3342, fax number (415) 744-3312, 
internet address [email protected]

ADDRESSES: Written statements should be mailed no later than June 16, 
1995, to the District Engineer, USAED San Francisco, 211 Main Street, 
San Francisco, California 94105.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Need for Action

    Currently vessels with drafts greater than 35 feet arriving in San 
Francisco Bay are required to arrive with only a portion of their cargo 
hulls full, or to off-load a portion of their cargo before proceeding 
to their respective terminals as far as Point Edith in Suisun Bay. The 
proposed deepening of the channel will lessen or eliminate this need, 
reducing transportation costs through increasing fleet efficiency. 
Safety would improve and environmental risks would decrease due to the 
inherent reduction in ship traffic.

Summary

    San Francisco Bay to Stockton, Phase III (John F. Baldwin) Ship 
Channel Improvement Project (JFB), starts in San Francisco Bay, extends 
through San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait and into Suisun Bay.
    The project consists of dredging four reaches of the channel, three 
maneuvering areas, one approach area, and one turning basin. The first 
reach, 3 miles of the West Richmond Channel in central San Francisco 
Bay through the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge area, is to be deepened from 
-35 feet to -45 feet MLLW with a bottom width of 600 feet. The second 
reach to be dredged is the Pinole Shoal Channel, which extends 
approximately 11 miles across San Pablo Bay and connects the naturally 
deep waters of San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait. This channel will be 
deepened from -35 MLLW to -45 feet MLLW, and the bottom width reduced 
from 600 to 520 feet. The first maneuvering area to be dredged is 
associated with the Pinole Shoal Channel, in the area near the Unocal 
wharf at Oleum. This area will be dredged to -45 feet MLLW. The 
Carquinez Strait Channel is the third reach to be deepened as part of 
the JFB project. This approximately 3.5-mile long channel will be 
deepened from -35 feet MLLW, with a width of 600 feet to -45 feet MLLW 
with a width of 520 feet through the shoal areas of Upper Carquinez 
Strait in the Martinez-Benicia area, tapering to approximately 300 feet 
at the Interstate 680 (I-680) and Southern Pacific Railroad bridge. The 
approach area south of the main Carquinez Strait Channel at Martinez 
will be deepened to -45 feet MLLW and the maneuvering area will be 
enlarged to include the naturally deep water to the north. The final 
reach is Bulls Head Shoal Channel, a distance of approximately 2 miles. 
This reach will be dredged from the existing -35 feet to -45 feet MLLW 
and after passing through the narrow straits under the railroad bridge, 
widened from the existing 350 feet to 520 feet. This newly enlarged 
channel will continue into a 1500-foot trapezoidal turning basin that 
will be positioned at the upstream end of the reach with a depth of -35 
feet MLLW outside of the channel. After leaving the turning basin the 
channel will revert to current project dimensions upstream of -35 feet 
MLLW with a width of 350 feet. The volume of material to be dredged 
from the project is approximately (9 million cubic yards [mcy]).

Alternatives

    Alternatives associated with the JFB projects are the No-Action 
alternative, in which no disposal site would be used and therefore the 
project would not be constructed, and combinations of sites for 
disposal of dredged material. A total of ten sites have been identified 
for disposal and will be evaluated in the EIS/EIR. The sites include 
one ocean disposal site (EPA-designated San Francisco Deep Ocean 
Disposal Site [SF-DODS]), one San Francisco Bay disposal site (the Bay 
Farm Borrow area), and eight land sites. The SF-DODS is located 
approximately 50 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge in over 8,000 
feet of water. The Bay Farm Borrow Area (BFBA) is located off Bay Farm 
Island, Alameda County and is, on average, -31 feet MLLW, encompassing 
over 400 acres. The first land alternative is Leonard Ranch, located in 
Sonoma County, south of Highway 37, near Port Sonoma-Marin where 
material would be dried and used as cover material for landfills. 
Montezuma Wetlands (Phase I) is located in Solano County on Montezuma 
Slough north of the [[Page 20483]] confluence of the Sacramento and San 
Joaquin Rivers. Dredged material would be used to restore the site to a 
tidal wetland. Various Department of Water Resources (DWR) Delta Island 
sites have been identified through the Long Term Management Strategy 
(LTMS) as potential land sites for material to be used in levee 
maintenance. Sites with the most potential for use of dredged material 
in levee maintenance are Twitchell, Jersey, Sherman, Bradford, and 
Bethel Islands and Webb Tract.

Scoping

    The focus of the DEIS will be on the construction and maintenance 
of the JFB channel and the associated disposal sites. Interested 
parties are requested to express their views concerning the proposed 
activity by June 16, 1995. A scoping meeting for the project will be 
held in the Bay Room at the George Gordon Center, 500 Court Street in 
Martinez, Contra Costa County, California on June 1, 1995, starting at 
6 p.m.
    Agencies and the public are encouraged to provide written comments 
in addition to, or in lieu of, oral comments at the scoping meeting. To 
be most helpful, the scoping comments should clearly describe specific 
environmental topics or issues which the commentator believes the 
document should address. Oral and written comments receive equal 
consideration. Written public comment concerning scoping of the DEIS 
will be accepted until June 16, 1995. Please address all correspondence 
to the District Engineer, USAED San Francisco, 211 Main Street, San 
Francisco, California 94105. For additional information, please contact 
the person indicated above.
    Topics which have already been identified as needing consideration 
in the DEIS are salinity intrusion, wildlife conservation, endangered 
species, and sediment and water quality.
    The DEIS will be used as the primary information document to secure 
concurrence in a Federal Coastal Zone Consistency Determination. In 
addition, the DEIS will be used by the local sponsor to meet its 
responsibilities under the California Environmental Quality Act, and 
may also be used by the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control 
Board to meet its responsibilities under the Porter-Cologne Act. Other 
reviews in which the DEIS will be a source of information are the Fish 
and Wildlife Coordination Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, 
and ``trustee agency'' reviews by the State of California. The DEIS 
will be available for public review in Fall, 1995.
Gregory D. Showalter,
Army Federal Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. 95-10191 Filed 4-25-95; 8:45 am]
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