Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers April 20, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On April 6, 2011, the Jackson County Port Authority (JCPA) submitted an application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), Mobile District, Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) for authorization to impact wetlands and other waters of the United States associated with the proposed widening of the Pascagoula Lower Sound/ Bayou Casotte Channel (the proposed project). The proposed project is located in the Pascagoula Lower Sound/Bayou Casotte, Pascagoula, Jackson County, Mississippi (Latitude 30.365[deg] North, Longitude 88.556[deg] West). The Corps prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) to assess the potential environmental impacts associated with the proposed project. The proposed project is the dredging of approximately 38,200 feet (7.2 miles) of the existing Pascagoula Lower Sound/Bayou Casotte Channel segment to widen the channel from the Federally authorized width of 350 feet and depth of - 42 feet mean lower low water (MLLW) (with 2 feet of allowable over- depth and 2 feet of advanced maintenance) to a width of 450 feet, parallel to the existing channel centerline and to the existing Federally authorized depth of -42 feet MLLW. The proposed project would include the placement of approximately 3.35 million cubic yards of dredged material resulting from the channel modification.

The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers is the lead Federal agency for an evaluation of the maintenance dredging of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIWW) from Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, southward to the Georgia-Florida state line. The Corps' Savannah District intends to prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) to analyze the impacts of the maintenance dredging of this portion of the AIWW, including disposal of dredged materials. The DEIS will update the project's 1976 EIS and will analyze the impacts that have occurred from periodic dredging events since 1976 to provide a baseline for evaluating projected impacts from implementing a new Dredged Material Management Plan (DMMP) over the next 20 years. The DEIS will evaluate the anticipated 20-year dredging needs and alternative disposal options, including using existing upland confined disposal areas and Ocean Dredged Material Disposal Sites (ODMDS), establishing new ODMDS, constructing new upland confined disposal areas, constructing confining structures on existing marsh disposal areas, and using open water disposal areas. In accordance with requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, the Corps of Engineers hereby notifies the public that it is beginning preparation of a DEIS.