[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 71 (Friday, April 14, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17984-17986]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-07572]
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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers
The Release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)
for the Bogue Banks Master Beach Nourishment Plan (BBMBNP), on Bogue
Banks Barrier Island, Carteret County, NC
AGENCY: Department of the Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DoD.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE), 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 Harbor Act, from
Carteret County to implement, under an inter-local agreement between
the towns on Bogue Banks barrier island, a comprehensive 50-year beach
and inlet management plan for the protection of approximately 25 miles
of Bogue Banks shoreline. In order to address ongoing shoreline erosion
in a more effective manner, the County and island municipalities (Towns
of Atlantic Beach, Pine Knoll Shores, Indian Beach, and Emerald Isle)
are proposing to combine their shore protection efforts under a more
efficient comprehensive 50-year beach and inlet management plan known
as the Bogue Banks Master Beach Nourishment Plan (BBMBNP).
DATES: Written comments on the DEIS must be received at (see ADDRESSES
below) no later than 5 p.m. on May 29, 2017.
ADDRESSES: Copies of comments and questions regarding the DEIS may be
addressed to: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District,
Regulatory Division. ATTN: File Number SAW-2009-00293, 69 Darlington
Avenue, Wilmington, NC 28403. Copies of the DEIS can be reviewed on the
Corps homepage at, http://www.saw.usace.army.mil/Missions/RegulatoryPermitProgram/MajorProjects.aspx, under Bogue Banks 50-Year
Project: Corps ID # SAW-2009-00293.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions about the proposed action
and DEIS and/or to requests receive a CD or written copies of the DEIS
can be directed to Mr. Mickey Sugg, Wilmington Regulatory Field Office,
telephone: (910) 251-4811 or [email protected] .
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
1. Project Purpose and Need. The proposed action is to establish
and implement a comprehensive, long-term,
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non-federal beach and inlet management program that would preserve
Bogue Banks' tax base, protect its infrastructure, and maintain its
tourism-based economy. The COE Civil Work's investigation of a long-
term federal Coastal Storm Damaged Reduction (CSDR) project for Bogue
Banks has been ongoing for nearly 30 years. The island's shoreline has
been managed in some capacity for over 35 years by Federal projects
administered through the COE Civil Works program and by non-federal
projects implemented by the County, and/or local municipalities through
the COE Regulatory permit program. Since 1978, roughly 11 million cubic
yards of sand have been placed upon the beaches of Bogue Banks at a
total cost of approximately $95 million. Past management efforts have
largely consisted of stand-alone projects that were undertaken to
address site-specific erosional problems. This stand-alone approach has
limited the efficiency and effectiveness of past and current efforts by
the County and island municipalities to implement shore protection
projects and to maintain the beaches. As federal funding for shore
protection projects has declined, the future of a long-term federal
CSDR project has grown increasingly uncertain. The proposed action
would address the ongoing trend of declining federal shore protection
funding by establishing a non-federal management program under the
autonomous control of the County and the island municipalities. An
island wide regional strategy was developed to do the following: (1)
Establish a regional approach by consolidating local community
resources, both financially and logistically, to manage Bogue Inlet and
the beaches on Bogue Banks in an effective manner, (2) Provide long-
term shoreline protection stabilization and an equivalent level of
protection along Bogue Banks' 25-mile oceanfront/inlet shorelines
addressing long-term erosion, (3) Provide long-term protection to Bogue
Banks' tourism industry, (4) Provide short and long-term protection to
residential and commercial structures and island infrastructure, (5)
Provide long-term protection to the local tax base by protection
existing and future tax bases and public access/use, (6) Maintain and
improve natural resources along Bogue Banks' oceanfront and inlet
shoreline by using compatible beach material in compliance with the
North Carolina State Sediment Criteria for shore protection, (7)
Maintain and improve recreational uses of Bogue Banks' oceanfront/inlet
shorelines, (8) Maintain navigation conditions within Bogue Inlet, and
(9) Balance the needs of the human environment with the protection of
existing natural resources.
2. Proposed Action. Within the County's preferred alternative,
known as Alternative 4 (or the BBMBNP), the County would manage all of
the approximately 18 miles of beaches along Pine Knoll Shores, Indian
Beach/Salter Path, and Emerald Isle, along with the eastern shoreline
of Bogue Inlet. The 50-year management would employ a regular and
recurring cycle of nourishment events, in combination with periodic
realignments of the Bogue Inlet ebb tide channel, to continuously
maintain beach profile sand volumes at a 25-year Level of Protection
(LOP). This LOP equates to protection for upland structures against a
25-year storm event, and nourishment events would be implemented
according to 25-year LOP beach profile volumetric triggers. Volumetric
triggers were developed by analyzing and adjusting design beach
profiles in a series of iterative SBEACH numerical modeling runs. The
final modeling results indicated appropriate volumetric triggers
ranging from 211-266 cubic yards/foot along Bogue Banks, averaging 238
cubic yards/foot. Based on variability in the volumetric triggers, the
project shoreline was divided into management reaches ranging in length
from 2.4 to 4.5 miles. Reaches include Pine Knoll Shores, Indian Beach/
Salter Path, Emerald Isle (EI) East, EI Central, EI West, and Bogue
Inlet. Based on the SBEACH modeling results and observed background
erosional loss rates, EI Central, EI West, and Bogue Inlet management
reaches are expected to require recurring nourishment of approximately
0.06 to 0.23 million cubic yards of material at intervals of six or
nine years to offset background erosion. For Pine Knoll Shores, Indian
Beach/Salter Path, and EI East, recurring maintenance events would
place approximately 0.2 to 0.5 million cubic yards of material at
intervals of three or six years to offset background erosion. Actual
maintenance nourishment intervals would be expected to vary in response
to background erosion rate variability over the course of the 50-year
project.
For Bogue Inlet management, the proposal has designated a ``safe
box'' within the inlet throat where the ebb channel would be allowed to
migrate freely so long as it remains within the boundaries of the safe
box. If the channel migrates beyond the eastern boundary of the safe
box (or toward Emerald Isle), this would trigger a preemptive event to
realign the ebb channel mid-center within the established boundary. The
limits of the safe box were developed and evaluated through empirical
analysis of historical inlet changes and supplemental numerical
modeling. Historical ebb channel alignments and corresponding inlet
shoreline positions were analyzed through GIS analysis of historical
aerial photography, National Ocean Service (NOS) T-sheet maps, and
LIDAR topographic maps. Past migration rates and corresponding
shoreline changes indicate that once eastward migration accelerates
toward Emerald Isle, the migrating channel has the potential to
threaten structures along the shoreline within two to three years.
Based on the historical patterns, a safe box was established with
boundaries corresponding to the location where acceleration of the ebb
channel towards the west end of Emerald Isle has occurred in the past.
The validity of the boundaries were then evaluated by modeling a series
of six idealized inlet configurations encompassing the range of most
relevant historical ebb channel alignments. Modeling results did not
show any additional geomorphological indicators of an impending shift
to accelerated migration that warranted modifications to the initial
safe box. Once the boundary threshold is triggered, the relocation
event would entail the construction of a channel approximately 6,000-
feet long with variable bottom widths ranging from 150 to 500 feet. The
dimensions of the channel would be similar to the footprint of the ebb
tide channel realignment construction completed in 2005. Maintenance
events of Bogue Inlet are expected approximately every ten to fifteen
years, with corresponding placement of dredged material on the beaches
of Emerald Isle.
Beach fill for all the proposed nourishment activities on Bogue
Banks would be acquired from a combination of sources including
offshore borrow sites, Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway disposal areas,
upland sand mines, and the management of the Bogue Inlet. The offshore
borrow sites consist of the Old Offshore Dredge Material Disposal Site
(ODMDS) and the current ODMDS, which are located approximately 3
nautical miles offshore from Beaufort Inlet, and Area Y, which is
located over 1.0 mile offshore from EI West reach. It is expected that
hopper dredge plants will be used to extract beach fill material from
the offshore borrow sites. Material would be transported from the
hopper dredges to offshore booster pumps and carried to the appropriate
nourishment reaches via pipeline. A hydraulic cutterhead dredge will
likely be used during the management of the
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inlet bar channel event, which would transport the dredge material
directly from the dredge plant onto the beach via pipelines.
3. Alternatives. Several alternatives have been identified and
evaluated through the scoping process, and further detailed description
of all alternatives is disclosed in Section 3.0 of the FEIS.
4. Scoping Process. To date, a public scoping meeting was held on
September 30, 2010 in Morehead City; several Project Delivery Team
(PDT) meetings have been held, which were comprised of local, state,
and federal government officials, local residents and nonprofit
organizations.
The COE has coordinated closely with Bureau of Ocean Energy and
Management (BOEM), which has agreed to be a cooperating agency, in the
development of the DEIS to ensure the process complies with the
requirements of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) and with
the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Additionally, the COE has
preliminarily consulted with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the
National Marine Fisheries Service Protected Resources Division under
the Endangered Species Act; with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and National
Marine Fisheries Service Habitat Conservation Division under the Fish
and Wildlife Coordination Act; and with the National Marine Fisheries
Service Habitat Conservation Division under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
The DEIS assesses the potential water quality impacts pursuant to
Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, and is coordinated with the North
Carolina Division of Coastal Management (DCM) to insure consistency
with the Coastal Zone Management Act.
Dated: April 3, 2017.
Scott McLendon,
Regulatory Division Chief, Wilmington District.
[FR Doc. 2017-07572 Filed 4-13-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3720-58-P