The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District and the Massachusetts Port Authority will hold a joint public meeting Feb. 14 to hear comments on the proposed Boston Harbor Inner Harbor Maintenance Dredging Project in Boston, Mass.

The proposed project involves the maintenance dredging of the following Federal navigation channels: the Main Ship Channel upstream of Spectacle Island to the Inner Confluence, the upper Reserved Channel, the approach to the Navy Dry Dock, and a portion of the Chelsea River in Boston Harbor to remove shoals and return the channels to their authorized depths.

The Corps of Engineers has prepared a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS), in cooperation with the Massachusetts Port Authority, which has prepared the State Notice of Project Change (NPC), in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) respectively. The DSEIS and the NPC are available for review and download at the Corps website: http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/projects/ma/BHNIP/DSEIS.pdf.

The public meeting will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 2 p.m. on the second floor of the Black Falcon Cruise Terminal at One Black Falcon Avenue in Boston to solicit comments on the Draft SEIS and the Corps' proposal to dredge Boston's inner harbor.

Maintenance dredging of the navigation channels landward of Spectacle Island is needed to remove shoals and restore the Federal navigation channels to their authorized depths. Materials dredged from Federal channels will either be disposed of at the Massachusetts Bay Disposal Site (if the material is suitable for unconfined open water disposal), or, if the material is not suitable for unconfined open water disposal, in confined aquatic disposal (CAD) cells which will be developed as part of this project.

Major navigation channel improvements (deepening) were made in 1998 through 2001 in the Reserved Channel, the Mystic River, the Inner Confluence and the Chelsea River. A final EIS was prepared for this previous navigation improvement project in June 1995 in which the use of CAD cells in the Mystic River, Inner Confluence, and Chelsea River were investigated. One CAD cell for the proposed maintenance project will be constructed in the Mystic River and one in the Main Ship Channel just below the Inner Confluence.

Public comments on the DSEIS/NPC and the proposal for dredging are due to the Corps of Engineers by March 7, 2006 and to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) Unit by Feb. 27, 2006. The Notice of Availability that identifies addresses where comments can be sent is available and can be downloaded from the Corps web site at: http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/projects/ma/BHNIP/DSEISNOA.pdf.

The Corps of Engineers is authorized by the various Rivers and Harbors Acts and Water Resources Development Acts to conduct maintenance dredging of the Federal navigation channels and anchorage areas in Boston Harbor.

The DSEIS and NPC are also available for review at the following public libraries: Boston Public Library's Kirstein Branch, East Boston Branch, Charlestown Branch, North End Branch, South Boston Branch, Orient Heights Branch, and the Boylston Street Branch, and at the BRA Library at Boston City Hall, and the Winthrop Public Library. The notice of release of the DSEIS/NPC was published in the Federal Register on Jan. 13 and Jan. 20.

Anyone who wants to receive a copy of the DSEIS/NPC, the Executive Summary, or provide comments on the DSEIS/NPC, should contact Mr. Michael Keegan, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District, ATTN: Project Management Branch, 696 Virginia Road, Concord, MA 01742-2751.

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