United States Army Corps of Engineers 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) has prepared a Supplemental Information Report (SIR) to provide an update to the General Re-evaluation Report/Environmental Impact Statement (GRR/EIS) for the Berryessa Creek Element of the Coyote and Berryessa Creek, California, Flood Control Project (Project), that the Corps may be invoking the Clean Water Act (CWA) Sec. 404(r) exemption. The Project initially sought to obtain a water quality certification from the Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Francisco Region (RWQCB) pursuant to the CWA Sec. 401(a) (401 Certification). During the course of extensive coordination over the last six months, the RWQCB has stated that it may be unable or unwilling to issue a 401 Certification for the Project. Therefore, in an effort to preserve the ability to improve flood risk management in this area without excessive delay, the Corps may invoke 404(r) exemption in lieu of obtaining a 401 Certification from the RWQCB.

The purpose of this notice is to initiate the scoping process for an evaluation of whether there is adequate capacity for placement/ disposal of projected maintenance dredged material from Noyo Harbor. This evaluation will be conducted in a two-step process: first a preliminary assessment (PA) will make projections of the volume of dredged material, estimate the existing capacity for placement/disposal of the material, and verify that continued maintenance dredging is economically justified. If it is concluded that continued maintenance dredging is justified and that the existing placement/disposal capacity is not adequate, then a Dredged Material Management Plan (DMMP) will be prepared to identify placement/disposal sites with adequate capacity for the next 20 years or more of federal and non-federal maintenance dredging.