[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 169 (Friday, August 31, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50332-50333]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 07-4274]


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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: 
[email protected].

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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