[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 228 (Monday, November 29, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69362-69363]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-26261]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Army; Corps of Engineers


Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the 
Regional Dredged Material Management Plan for San Francisco Bay and 
Estuary, CA

AGENCY: Department of the Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DOD.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco District 
(Corps) will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the 
San Francisco Bay and Estuary Regional Dredged Material Management Plan 
(Regional DMMP). The Regional DMMP will identify specific measures to 
manage the dredged material from maintenance and construction dredging 
at Federal navigation projects over the next twenty years. The Corps 
will take into consideration the dredged sediment from non-Federal, 
permitted dredging projects with the Bay and Estuary in formulating the 
Regional DMMP to the extent that disposal of the material affects the 
capacity and availability of disposal options required for Federal 
projects.

DATES: A scoping meeting will be held Thursday, December 16, 2004 from 
7 p.m. until 9 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be at the Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter, 101 
Eighth Street, Oakland, CA (510) 464-7700. TDD/TTY is (510) 464-7769. 
Public transit access includes BART (Lake Merritt Station on Fremont 
Line), AC Transit and Amtrak.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions about the proposed action 
and Environmental Impact Statement should be directed to Mr. Richard 
Stradford, either at (415) 977-8669 or richard.a.stradford@ 
spd02.usace.army.mil. Written correspondence should be sent to Mr. 
Stradford, U.S. Army Corps of

[[Page 69363]]

Engineers, San Francisco District, 333 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 
94105.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to Section 102(2)(c) of the 
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 as implemented by the 
Council on Environmental Quality regulations (40 CFR Parts 1500-1508) 
and Pub. L. 102-484 Section 2834, as amended by Pub. L. 104-106 Section 
2867, the Department of the Army hereby gives notice of intent to 
prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the subject 
Regional DMMP. The San Francisco District of the Corps will be the lead 
agency in preparing the EIS. The EIS will provide an analysis 
supporting the requirements of NEPA in addressing impacts to the 
environment that may result from the implementation of the Regional 
DMMP.
    1. Proposed Action. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regulation 
(Engineer Regulation 1105-2-100) requires that a dredged material 
management plan be prepared for each Federal navigation project. Where 
there are groups of interrelated harbor projects, a regional plan may 
be developed, which is the approach proposed for the projects in the 
San Francisco Bay and Estuary. Such plans are intended to implement 
channel and harbor dredging and disposal in a cost effective and 
environmentally acceptable manner. The proposed Regional DMMP will 
focus on the management of dredged material from maintaining Federal 
navigation channels and constructing new navigation projects, and will 
take into consideration the non-Federal dredging projects permitted by 
the San Francisco District. The approved Regional DMMP will be 
consistent with sound engineering practices and meet all Federal 
environmental standards, including those established by Section 404 of 
the Clean Water Act (1972) and Section 103 of the Marine Protection 
Research and Sanctuaries Act (1972), as amended. In addition, the 
Regional DMMP will be consistent with State and local plans such as the 
California Regional Water Quality Control Board's ``Basin Plan'' and 
the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission's ``Bay 
Plan'' (locally approved plan of the Coastal Zone Management Act of 
1972). As a partner in the Long Term Management Strategy (LTMS) to 
manage dredged material in the San Francisco Bay Region, the Corps is 
committed to incorporating into the Regional DMMP the goals that the 
multi-agency consortium has established. The Regional DMMP will work 
towards meeting the LTMS goal of reducing in-Bay disposal of dredged 
material, eventually reaching the target of 40% ocean disposal, 40% 
beneficial reuse and 20% in-Bay disposal. In addition, in response to 
LTMS recommendations, the Regional DMMP will consider changes to the 
design parameters of navigation projects such as channel width, depth 
and configuration, in terms of changes that would reduce the volume of 
dredging necessary to meet the navigational needs of each project.
    2. Project Alternatives. The alternatives for the Regional DMMP and 
EIS will consist of an array of disposal and beneficial reuse options 
for each of the Federal projects, which currently are the Napa River, 
Oakland Harbor, Petaluma River, Pinole Shoal Channel, Redwood City 
Harbor, Richmond Harbor, San Francisco Bar Channel, San Leandro Marina, 
San Rafael Creek and Suisun Bay Channel projects. There are 
approximately 70 non-Federal dredging projects, and the management of 
dredged material from them will be taken into account to the extent 
that it impacts the availability of disposal sites for the Federal 
dredged material.
    The current beneficial reuse projects to be examined are 
predominantly wetlands restoration efforts, with the Hamilton Field & 
Bel Marin Keys Wetlands Restoration and Montezuma Wetlands being the 
two main plans. Additional beneficial-use initiatives are the disposal 
ponds at Mare Island, the Carneros River Ranch and Bair Island 
projects, as well as levee-rehabilitation projects on selected 
Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta islands (e.g., Sherman Island, Winter 
Island, and Van Sickle Island). The historically used in-Bay aquatic 
disposal sites to be carried forward in the Regional DMMP are the 
Carquinez Strait, San Pablo Bay, Alcatraz, and Suisun Bay sites. Ocean 
disposal sites for evaluation are the San Francisco Bar (actually a 
reuse site for dredged sand from the Bar Channel just outside the 
Golden Gate) and the San Francisco Deep Ocean Disposal site, located 
approximately 50 miles west of San Francisco.
    3. Scoping Process. The Corps is requesting information as well as 
the views of interested Federal, State, and local agencies, Native 
American tribes, and other interested private organizations and parties 
through provision of this notice and holding of a scoping meeting (see 
DATES). The main purpose of this meeting is to solicit input regarding 
the environmental issues of concern and the alternatives that should be 
discussed in the Regional DMMP and EIS. The public comment period 
closes 30 days from the publication of this notice. Additional public 
meetings are anticipated prior to the release of the draft EIS.
    4. Availability of EIS. The public will have an additional 
opportunity to comment on the proposed alternatives after the draft EIS 
has been released, currently scheduled for January 2006.

Brenda S. Bowen,
Army Federal Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. 04-26261 Filed 11-26-04; 8:45 am]
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