[Federal Register: October 19, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 201)]
[Notices]
[Page 60798]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr19oc05-39]
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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Department of the Army; Corps of Engineers
Availability of Final General Reevaluation Report and
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Poplar Island
Environmental Restoration Project, Talbot County, MD
AGENCY: Department of the Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DOD.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the requirements of the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
(USACE), Baltimore District has prepared a Final General Reevaluation
Report (GRR) and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for
the Poplar Island Environmental Restoration Project (PIERP). The GRR/
SEIS evaluated the vertical and/or lateral expansion of the PIERP,
design modifications to the existing project, the addition of
recreational/educational opportunities to the existing project, and the
potential to accept dredged material from additional channels not
specified in the 1996 EIS for the existing project. A Notice of
Availability (NOA) for the Draft GRR/SEIS was published by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Federal Register on June
22, 2005 (70 FR 36129).
The preferred alternative includes a northern lateral expansion
consisting of approximately 575 acres, which would include wetland and
upland habitat, and a protected open water embayment; construction of a
5-ft vertical raising of the existing upland Cells 2 and 6 at the
PIERP; amending the existing project authorization and Project
Cooperation Agreement to include the placement of dredged material from
the southern approach channels to the Chesapeake and Delaware (C&D)
Canal; incorporation of design modifications required for the
completion of the existing project, and development of recreational and
educational enhancement for the PIERP.
DATES: USACE filed the final document with EPA on September 30, 2005.
EPA published a Notice of Availability in the Federal Register on
October 7, 2005 (70 FR 58700). A Record of Decision may be signed no
earlier than 30 days after the EPA notice.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
Baltimore District, Attn: Mr. Mark Medelsohn, CENAB-PL-P, P.O. Box
1715, Baltimore, MD 21203-1715 or electronically at
mark.mendelsohn@usace.army.mil or by telephone at (410) 962-9499 or
(800) 295-1610.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: PIERP is located in the Chesapeake Bay,
approximately 39 miles south-southeast of the Port of Baltimore, and
two miles northwest of Tilghman Island in Talbot County, MD.
Approximately 10,000 acres of remote island habitat has been lost
throughtout the Chesapeake Bay in the last 150 years. Dredged material
from the Upper Chesapeake Bay Approach Channels to the Port of
Balitmore is being beneficially used to restore 1,140 acres of wetland
and upland habitat (approximately 570 acres of wetland habitat and 570
acres of upland habitat), and it is estimated that by 2014 the PIERP
will provide up to 40 million cubic yards (mcy) of dredged material
placement capacity. To date, approximately 12 mcy of dredged material
have been placed at the site. Construction and site operation at the
PIERP is a collaborative effort that is cost shared between the Federal
sponsor, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers--Baltimore District and the
non-Federal sponsor, Maryland Port Administration (MPA).
To address a predicted dredged material placement capacity
shortfall, USACE-Baltimore and MPA initiated the Poplar Island
Expansion Study (PIES) under the existing PIERP Congressional
Authorization, Section 537 of the Water Resources Development Act
(WRDA) of 1996. Authorization for ecosystem restoration projects using
dredged material is included in Section 204 of the WRDA of 1992, as
amended by Section 207 of the WRDA of 1996. A Notice of Intent (NOI) to
initiate the preparation of the GRR/SEIS was published in the Federal
Register in June 2003 (68 FR 33685).
The Final Integrated GRR/SEIS documents NEPA compliance for the
proposed expansion of the PIERP, provides information specific to the
actions of the GRR, and supplements the Poplar Island Restoration
Study, Maryland: Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact
Statement (ERP No. D-COE-D350557-MD) (USACE/MPA, 1996).
Public meetings on the draft document were held on July 19, 2005,
in Easton Maryland, and on July 20, 2005, at Tilghman, Maryland. Both
meetings provided an opportunity for the public to present oral and/or
written comments.
You may view the Final GRR/SEIS and related information on our Web
page at: http://www.nab.usace.army.mil./projects/Maryland/PoplarIsland/expansion.html
.
The Final and Draft GRR/SEIS have been prepared in accordance with
(1) NEPA of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), (2) regulations
of the Council on Environmental Quality for implementing the procedural
provisions of NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), and (3) USACE regulations
implementing NEPA (ER-200-2-2).
Mark Mendelsohn,
Study Manager.
[FR Doc. 05-20902 Filed 10-18-05; 8:45 am]
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