82 FR 17984 - 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

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers

Federal Register Volume 82, Issue 71 (April 14, 2017)

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).

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 71 (Friday, April 14, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17984-17986]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[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,

[[Page 17985]]

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

[[Page 17986]]

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