Engineers Corps April 2, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Wilmington District, Wilmington Regulatory Field Office has received a request for Department of the Army authorization, pursuant to Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, from the Town of Topsail Beach to conduct a one-time interim beach fill project to protect oceanfront development and infrastructure until such time that a Federally authorized shore protection project can be implemented. The Corps has prepared a Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (FSEIS) in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This FSEIS was developed as a supplement to the West Onslow Beach and New River Inlet (Topsail Beach), NC, General Reevaluation Report (GRR) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) (USACE, 2008) prepared by the Wilmington District Corps of Engineers (USACE or the Corps) to evaluate resources and environmental considerations involved with the proposed Federal Beach nourishment project. The purpose of this supplement is to fully evaluate the potential impacts of the private action proposed as an addition to the Federal Project and to evaluate alternatives to the proposed action. The private action is proposed to respond to current, substantial erosion occurring along the oceanfront shoreline of the Town of Topsail Beach, NC. While Federal budget priorities have made it difficult to obtain funds for civil works projects in general and beach protection projects in particular, the projected earliest construction date for the Federal project is 2012. State and agency review and comment on Final GRR and EIS were completed in summer 2008. The Recommended Plan outlined in the Final GRR and EIS includes use of all the identified borrow sites over the next 50 years pending further investigations during the development of detailed plans and specifications. Given the current status of the GRR-EIS and the need for Congressional authorization, funding, preparation of plans and specifications, and right-of-way acquisition, the Federal project may not be implemented until Fiscal Year 2012, or possibly later. Accordingly, the Town of Topsail Beach would like to construct an interim beach fill project to protect its development and infrastructure during the period between now and the time the Federal project is constructed. In order to account for any possible delays in the construction of the Federal project, a construction date of 2016 was used in the development of the alternatives and economic analysis for the interim project. This would maintain the baseline conditions described in the Final GRR and FSEIS.