The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will release today, August 17th 2015, for public review and comment the Draft Dredged Material Management Plan (DMMP) and Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for Long Island Sound.
The DMMP and PEIS will be available for review on the Corps website .
Also, the Corps is extending the public comment period that was originally listed in the July 23, 2015 public notice to now run through October 5, 2015.
Long Island Sound is a large coastal estuary located between Long Island, New York on the south, and the shores of New York, Connecticut and southwestern Rhode Island on the north. This study included adjacent waters including Block Island Sound, Little Narragansett Bay, Fishers Island Sound, Peconic Bay and Gardiners Bay. A total of nearly 240 harbors, coves, bays and rivers supporting various levels of navigational access are located along these shores.
The DMMP examines the need for dredging, the history of dredging and dredged material placement, and current beneficial use practices. The DMMP identifies and assesses alternatives for future dredged material placement and beneficial use, identifies the likely Federal Base Plans (least cost environmentally acceptable plan) for future Federal dredging activities, and recommends further action to be taken by individual projects as they come up for their next maintenance cycle, or in feasibility studies for proposed project improvements.
Two public hearings will be held in New York: on Monday, August 24, 2015 in the Village Center at Port Jefferson at 101-A East Broadway in Port Jefferson, N.Y.; and on Tuesday, August 25, 2015 at the Marriott Long Island at 101 James Doolittle Blvd. in Uniondale, N.Y.
Two public hearings will be also held in Connecticut: on Wednesday, August 26, 2015 at the University of Connecticut-Stamford at 1 University Place in Stamford, Conn.; and on Thursday, August 27, 2015 at the Holiday Inn-New London at 35 Governor Winthrop Blvd. in New London, Conn.