TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES:
The Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint River Navigation Snag Shearing and Maintenance Project, Alabama, Florida and Georgia was signed by Colonel Jon J. Chytka, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District on 4 April 2014.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District proposes a new technique for selective snag removal along the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint (ACF) navigation channel. The new technique for snag removal includes shearing the snag at or near its base and allowing it to fall to the bottom of the channel instead of the traditional method which utilizes a barge mounted crane with a clam-shell bucket to grasp the snag and orientate it out of the main channel along the margins of the river or other approved area. This new technique is designed to have less impact than the traditional method.
The new snagging technique will first be used on the Apalachicola River portion of the ACF navigation channel due to the current need for maintenance snagging. There are several locations on the Apalachicola River where snags are presenting a hazard to commercial vessels and boating public.
The FONSI and EA are posted on the Mobile District website at http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/Missions/PlanningEnvironmental/EnvironmentalAssessments.aspx