[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 147 (Tuesday, August 1, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43438-43439]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-12354]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Natural Resources Conservation Service


Environmental Statements, Availability

AGENCY: Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has prepared 
a Draft Areawide Environmental Impact Statement consistent with the 
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended, to disclose 
potential effects to the human environment.
    The Watershed Plan and Areawide Environmental Impact Statement 
(EIS) for the Cape Cod Water Resources Restoration Project are combined 
into a single document. The purposes of the Project are to restore 
degraded salt marshes, restore anadromous fish passages, and improve 
water quality for shellfishing areas. Specifically, sponsors wish to:
    1. Improve tidal flushing in salt marshes where man-made 
obstructions (i.e., road culverts) have restricted tidal flow. This 
will help restore native plant and animal communities in salt marshes, 
and improve biotic integrity.
    2. Restore fish ladders and other fish passages that have 
deteriorated. This will allow greater numbers of anadromous fish (which 
spend most of their adult lives in salt water and migrate to freshwater 
streams, rivers, and lakes to reproduce; for example, alewife, blueback 
herring) to gain access to spawning areas, and support greater 
populations of other species (for example, striped bass, bluefish, 
weakfish, largemouth bass, chain pickerel) that depend on them for 
food.
    3. Maintain and improve water quality affecting shellfish beds by 
treating stormwater runoff. This will help ensure that shellfish beds 
which are threatened with closure remain open, and maintain or extend 
the current shellfishing season for beds whose use is restricted during 
certain times of year.
    This Project is needed because human activity on Cape Cod has 
degraded its natural resources, including salt marshes, anadromous fish 
runs, and water quality over shellfish beds. The development of Cape 
Cod has required the construction of extensive road and railroad 
networks. Along the coast, culverts or bridges were needed for these 
networks to cross tidal marshes, and many of the openings through these 
structures are not large enough to allow adequate tidal flushing. When 
the culverts or bridges constrict flow, the tidal regime changes, which 
results in vegetation changes over time; what was once a thriving salt 
marsh can become a brackish or fresh water wetland dominated by 
invasive species. Together with funding from the Massachusetts Office 
of Coastal Zone Management (CZM), the Cape Cod Commission and the 
Buzzards Bay Project National Estuary Program identified over 182 sites 
where salt marshes have been altered by human activity.
    Human activity on Cape Cod has also resulted in damming or 
diverting streams, causing anadromous fish to lose access to spawning 
grounds. In addition, water flow may have been altered by cranberry 
growers and other farmers. Fish ladders and other fish passage 
facilities have been built to help ensure that fish get access to 
spawning areas, but these structures deteriorate over time (end of 
design life), or they may be of obsolete design and need replacement to 
function properly. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) 
identified 93 fish passage obstructions on Cape Cod.
    Cape Cod's economy depends on good water quality. Shellfishing, a 
multi-million dollar industry on the Cape, is only allowed in areas 
with excellent water quality. As land is developed, and more areas are 
paved, stormwater runoff may become contaminated with nutrients, 
metals, fertilizers, bacteria, etc. This runoff may carry enough fecal 
coliform bacteria to affect water quality in shellfishing areas, thus 
leading to closure of shellfishing areas, or restrictions on the 
periods when the beds can remain open. DMF and town officials 
identified over 160 stormwater discharge points into shellfishing 
areas. By controlling sources of runoff, separating clean water from 
contamination sources, and capturing and treating the most heavily 
contaminated runoff through a variety of measures (e.g., infiltration, 
constructed wetlands).
    Two alternatives were considered: Proposed Action/Recommended Plan 
and the No action alternative.
    No Action would continue the declining trend of water quality of 
shellfish waters, impaired anadromous fish runs and degraded salt 
marshes.
    The recommended plan is the Proposed Action (Cape Cod Water 
Resources Restoration Project) because it maximizes ecological benefits 
and is the National Ecosystem Restoration (NER) Plan. The Recommended 
Plan achieves the desired level of improvement for the least cost. For 
each project type (shellfish, fish passage, and salt marsh), the 
Restoration Project would provide a greater number of habitat units and 
greater other environmental benefits than the No Action Alternative. 
NRCS has developed a list of 76 projects that will meet the sponsors' 
objectives. All of these projects have received a planning-level 
analysis to ensure that they appear feasible and capable of providing 
the habitat benefits sought through this areawide Project. When the 
Project is authorized and funded, the sponsors will propose specific 
projects to NRCS. NRCS will review each project in more detail to 
determine the most cost-effective practice for that site and to verify 
that the habitat objectives will be achieved.
    The recommended plan would help to maintain or improve water 
quality in up to 26 shellfish areas affecting 7,300 acres of shellfish 
beds. Current laws and regulations require stormwater management for 
all new developments, which prevents or minimizes new development from 
causing the same water quality impairments that occurred in the past. 
The Project is expected to improve tidal flushing at 26 sites enhancing 
1,500 acres of salt marsh. Current design guidelines prevent or 
minimize road or railroad construction from causing the same 
hydrological restrictions that occurred in the past. And through this 
Project it is expected that 24 fish passages on Cape Cod would be 
restored to full function improving access to 4,200 acres of spawning 
habitat.
    Written comments regarding this Draft Areawide EIS should be mailed 
to: Cecil B. Currin, Cape Cod Water Resources Restoration Project EIS, 
USDA-NRCS, 451 West Street, Amherst, MA 01002. Comments may also be 
submitted by sending a facsimile to (413) 253-4395 or by e-mail to 
[email protected]. Please include CCWRRP in the subject line.
    Project information is also available on the Internet at http://www.ma.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/CCWRRP.

DATES: Comments must be received no later than 45 days after this 
notice is published.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cecil B. Currin, State 
Conservationist, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, 451 West 
Street, Amherst, MA

[[Page 43439]]

01002, (413) 253-4350. Project information is also available on the 
Internet at: http://www.ma.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/CCWRRP.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Copies of the Draft EIS are available by 
request at the address above. Basic data maybe viewed by contacting 
Carl Gustafson, State Conservation Engineer, USDA Natural Resources 
Conservation Service, 451 West Street, Amherst, MA 01002, (413) 253-
4362, [email protected].

    Signed in Amherst, Massachusetts, on July 19, 2006.
Bruce Thompson,
Acting State Conservationist.
 [FR Doc. E6-12354 Filed 7-31-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-16-P