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NAO-2019-00679

Published May 1, 2019
Expiration date: 6/3/2019

May 1, 2019
CENAO-WR-R
NAO-2019-00679

FEDERAL PUBLIC NOTICE
The district commander has received a joint application for federal and state permits as described below:

APPLICANT
Virginia Department of Transportation
Attn: Robert Galen Ridgell
87 Deacon Road
Fredericksburg, VA 22405

WATERWAY AND LOCATION OF THE PROPOSED WORK: The project is located along Route 639, Ladysmith Road, between the west end of the bridge on Route 639 over I-95 at Exit 110 westward to the intersection with U.S. Route 1. The work will impact wetlands and streams draining into the South River in Caroline County, Virginia.

PROPOSED WORK AND PURPOSE: The applicant proposes to widen existing Route 639 from two lanes to four for 0.85 miles with a sidewalk added on one side and a shared-use path on the other. The Federal Highway Administration is the lead federal agency and it issued a Categorical Exclusion for this proposal dated April 16, 2018.

The applicant stated it has avoided and minimized impacts as much as practicable. The applicant considered moving the work to the north but that would have resulted in residential and commercial building impacts. For crossings 3 and 4, the applicant considered the use of a wall to reduce stream and wetland impacts but deemed this option as too costly. Steepening fill slopes to 2:1 rather than 3:1 was discounted due to safety concerns of shared-path users.

The proposed work will impact 0.66 acres (28,900 square feet) of nontidal forested wetlands and 0.008 acres (350 square feet) of nontidal emergent wetlands. In addition, 0.14 acres (6,150 square feet) of wetlands and 0.008 acres (370 square feet) of stream bottom will be temporarily impacted by the proposed work. These areas will be restored upon work completion. The proposed work will permanently impact 1,575 linear feet of stream channel.

Mitigation for stream impacts would be accomplished by purchasing 1,488 credits from the York River Mitigation Bank, and mitigation for wetland impacts would be accomplished by debiting 58,150 square feet of credits from the VDOT Mattaponi mitigation bank.

In addition to the required Department of the Army permit, the applicant must obtain a Virginia Water Protection Permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality assuring that applicable laws and regulations pertaining to water quality are not violated. Project drawings are attached.

AUTHORITY: Permits are required pursuant to Sections 401 and 404 of the Clean Water Act (Public Law 95-217) and Title 62.1 of the Code of Virginia.

FEDERAL EVALUATION OF APPLICATION: The decision whether to issue a permit will be based on a probable-impact evaluation, including cumulative impacts of the proposed activity on the public interest. The decision will reflect the national concern for both protection and utilization of important resources. The benefits that reasonably may be expected from the proposal must be balanced against its reasonably foreseeable detriments. All of the proposal’s relevant factors will be considered, including conservation, economics, aesthetics, general environmental concerns, wetlands; cultural, fish and wildlife values; flood hazards, flood-plain values, land use, navigation, shoreline erosion and accretion, recreation, water supply and conservation, water quality, energy needs, safety, food and fiber production, mineral needs, property ownership and, in general, the people’s needs and welfare. The Environmental Protection Agency's "Guidelines for Specification of Disposal Sites for Dredged or Fill Material" will also be applied (Section 404(b)(1) of the Clean Water Act).

The Corps of Engineers is soliciting comments from the public; federal, state, and local agencies and officials; Indian tribes; and other interested parties in order to consider and evaluate the direct, indirect and cumulative impacts of this proposed activity. Any comments received will be considered by the Corps of Engineers to determine whether to issue, modify, condition or deny a permit for this proposal. To make this decision, comments are used to assess impacts on endangered species, historic properties, water quality, general environmental effects and other public-interest factors listed above. Comments are used in the preparation of an Environmental Assessment and/or Environmental Impact Statement pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act. They are also used to determine the need for a public hearing and overall public interest of the proposed activity. Anyone may request a public hearing to consider this permit application by writing to the district commander within 30 days of this notice date, stating specific reasons for holding the public hearing. The district commander will then decide if a hearing should be held.

Preliminary review indicates: (1) no environmental impact statement will be required; (2) all required coordination under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531-1544, 87 Stat. 884, as amended) has been completed by the Federal Highway Administration, lead federal agency, and no further coordination is required; and (3) all required consultation under the National Historic Preservation Act has been completed by the Federal Highway Administration (lead federal agency), and no further coordination is required. Additional information might change any of these findings.

For compliance with the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended for projects in Tidewater, the applicant must certify that federally licensed or permitted activities affecting Virginia's coastal uses or resources will be conducted in a manner consistent with the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program and obtain concurrence from the Department of Environmental Quality, Office of Environmental Impact Review. We have not received applicant certification prior to publication of this public notice. It is the applicant’s responsibility to submit a consistency certification to the Office of Environmental Impact Review for concurrence or objection, and proof must be submitted to the Corps prior to final permit issuance. A template federal consistency certification can be found at www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/EnvironmentalImpactReview/FederalConsistencyReviews.aspx#cert. For more information or to obtain a list of the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program’s enforceable policies, contact the Department of Environmental Quality’s Office of Environmental Impact Review at 804-698-4330 or e-mail bettina.sullivan@deq.virginia.gov or john.fisher@deq.virginia.gov.

COMMENT PERIOD: Comments on this project should be in writing. They can be sent by email to robert.a.berg@usace.army.mil or regular mail, addressed to: Norfolk District, Corps of Engineers (ATTN: CENAO-WR-R), 803 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510-1011. All comments should be received by close of business June 3.

PRIVACY & CONFIDENTIALITY: Comments and information, including the submitter’s identity, submitted in response to this public notice may be disclosed, reproduced and distributed at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers discretion. Information submitted in connection with this public notice cannot be maintained as confidential by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Submissions should not include any information the submitter seeks to preserve as confidential.

If you have any questions about this project or the permit process, contact Robert Berg at 757-201-7793 or robert.a.berg@usace.army.mil.

Attachment: Drawings