MOBILE, Ala. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mobile District has released the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS) for the Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program Comprehensive Barrier Islands Restoration Project, Jackson, Harrison and Hancock Counties, Mississippi for public review and comment.
The DSEIS is a supplement to the MsCIP Comprehensive Plan and Integrated Programmatic EIS, prepared in June 2009, which evaluated comprehensive water resource improvements associated with hurricane and storm damage risk reduction, shoreline erosion, salt water intrusion and fish and wildlife preservation in three coastal counties of Mississippi. The MsCIP Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement in 2009 addressed the general plan for comprehensive barrier island restoration; however, there was not a final design at the time because specific sand borrow sources and final design templates had not been completed.
To ensure full compliance with the NEPA, the Corps, Mobile District prepared this DSEIS in cooperation with other Federal, state, and local agencies. A Notice of Intent for the DSEIS was published on October 21, 2010 in the Federal Register. The purpose of the DSEIS is to address potential impacts associated with the restoration of the barrier islands. The alternatives considered in this DSEIS are focused specifically on site-specific barrier island restoration options within the National Park Service Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi Unit and Cat Island, and various sand borrow sites within the area. This DSEIS is used as a basis to ensure compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and for evaluating the following alternative plans: “No Action” and the Tentatively Selected Plan which includes restoration of Ship Island including sand placement in Camille Cut and replenishment of the southern shoreline of East Ship Island, beach-front placement of sand along Cat Island, and modification to the management of future dredged material from Pascagoula Ship Channel.
“The DSEIS is available for public and resource agency review for a 45-day period,” said E. Patrick Robbins, Mobile District Public Affairs.
Interested parties can review the DSEIS by visiting the district’s website at www.sam.usace.army.mil under the open comment period section.
Comments should be submitted no later than April 21, 2014.
“We have a variety of ways for the public to comment,” Robbins said. “Written comments may be submitted to USACE Mobile District by mail, facsimile, or electronic methods. Comments may also be submitted during a Public Hearing we will be conducting in the near future.”
Comments can be submitted during the open comment period to susan.i.rees@usace.army.mil or the following address:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Mobile District
Attn: Dr. Susan I. Rees
109 St. Joseph Street
Mobile, AL 36602
Phone: 251-694-4141
Fax: 251-690-2704