Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers October 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), Mobile District, issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) on June 16, 2006 (71 FR 34901) describing the preparation of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), to address the proposed implementation of interim water storage contracts at Lake Sidney Lanier/Buford Dam, GA, as contained in a settlement agreement associated with the Southeastern Federal Power Customers, Inc., (SeFPC) v. Secretary of the Army, et al. (1:00CV02954-TPJ) lawsuit. The Draft EIS will also address any changes in water management operations at Lake Lanier/Buford Dam, as well as the potential for other changes to operations in downstream reservoir projects in the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, Flint Rivers (ACF) basin, which would result from implementation of the interim water storage contracts. This supplement to the NOI provides additional information explaining the scoping process that will be used to gather information on the project from the public and details regarding the dates and locations of public scoping meetings.

In Accordance with 10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463), announcements is made of the forthcoming meeting. Name of Committee: Inland Waterways Users Board (Board). Date: November 17, 2006. Location: Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel, 107 6th Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, (412-562-1200). Time: Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. and the meeting is scheduled to adjourn at 1 p.m. Agenda: The Board will hear briefings on the status of both the funding for inland navigation projects and studies, and the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, and be provided updates of various inland waterways projects.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE), Wilmington District, Wilmington Regulatory Field Office has received an amendment to the 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 North Topsail Beach to nourish approximately 7.25 miles of shoreline. The modification will include an additional 3.85 miles of beachfront to protect residential homes and town infrastructures located along the south section of the Town limits. The proposed sources of material for the addition will be dredged from the same offshore borrow area as described in the original 7.25 mile plan. The placement of beach fill along the Town's southern shoreline would result in the initial widening of the beach 75 to 1590 feet seaward, depending on the final design volume and foreshore slopes that the fill assumes during construction. The 3.85 miles of shoreline are located at the southern end of North Topsail Beach. Unlike the original 7.25 miles of proposed nourishment, the additional section is outside the Coastal Barrier Resource System (CBRS) designation; therefore, it is not subject to the expenditure of Federal funding restrictions associated with the Coastal Barrier Resource Act of 1982 and the coastal Barrier Improvement Act of 1990. This south section, or stretch, of shoreline is currently being considered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a federal shoreline protection project. Due to delays to complete the federal plan formulation process, the North Topsail Beach Board of Alderman voted to include the 3.85 mile section in the non-federal 7.25 mile section that is currently under review pursuant to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) procedures. The decision to include the south section in the present EIS process is intended to act as interim or emergency beach fill by preserving existing development and infrastructure along the 3.85 miles of shoreline while the federal plan formulation continues. The original Notice of Intent was published on May 19, 2005 (70 FR 28924) with a commenting deadline of June 21, 2005.