Louisiana Coastal Area Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline Restoration Final Integrated Construction Report and Final Environmental Impact Statement
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________________________________________________________________________ LOUISIANA COASTAL AREA BARATARIA BASIN BARRIER SHORELINE RESTORATION FINAL INTEGRATED CONSTRUCTION REPORT AND FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi Valley Division New Orleans District March 2012 Integrated Construction Report and Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline Restoration LEAD AGENCY: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Mississippi Valley Division, New Orleans District ABSTRACT: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District (CEMVN), proposes to restore approximately 2,849 acres of dune, supratidal, and intertidal habitat on the Caminada Headland in Lafourche and Jefferson Parishes and Shell Island in Plaquemines Parish. Without action, these critical geomorphic features that isolate the Barataria Basin estuaries from the Gulf of Mexico will continue to degrade, existing breaches will widen and new breaches will form, and portions of the project area will disappear in the near term. Three alternative plans, including the No Action plan, were developed and evaluated as the Final Array. A combination of Caminada Alternative 5 and Shell Island Alternative 5 was selected as the National Ecosystem Restoration (NER) Plan and Recommended Plan. The alternative increases the longevity of the geomorphologic form and function of the Caminada Headland and Shell Island by creating or restoring 1,197 acres of dune and supratidal habitat, and 1,652 acres of intertidal habitat immediately after construction. The Recommended Plan will ensure the ability of the coastal landforms to provide geomorphic and hydrologic form and function, and provide habitat for essential fish and wildlife species. The fully funded cost of the Recommended Plan is approximately $448,351,000, without operations and maintenance. The estimated cost exceeds the WRDA 2007 authorization requiring additional authorization from Congress for implementation. The Recommended Plan will include operations and maintenance in the form of renourishment of the Caminada Headland and Shell Island, sustaining the benefits created by the project construction. Over each 10 year period, a minimum of 3.9 million cubic yards of material will be returned. Material from the Bayou Lafourche, Louisiana navigation project will be placed in the littoral drift south of Bayou Moreau where the long shore transport of material splits going east and west, allowing the longshore transport and wave action to move and place the sediment along the headland. The renourishment will benefit the Headland as longshore transport nourishes the beach and adds width to the shoreline. Shell Island will be restored to its pre-Hurricane Bob (1979) configuration and will include two renourishment cycles. Renourishment is an operations and maintenance cost that will be fully-funded by the non-federal sponsor. Near term restoration of the Caminada Headland and Shell Island is essential to prevent the need for significantly more difficult and costly restoration efforts in the future, or irretrievable loss of the ecosystem habitats. Comments: Please send comments or questions on this Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, Attention: William P. Klein, Jr., P.O. Box 60267, New Orleans, Louisiana 70160-0267. Telephone: (504) 862-2540; FAX: (504) 862-2088. The official closing date for receipt of comments will be 30 days from the date on which the Notice of Availability of the Final EIS appeared in the Federal Register. Cover picture: Caminada Headland (East of Port Fourchon, LA). Picture provided by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District (May 11, 2009). EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BACKGROUND The Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline Restoration Study (BBBS) was identified as a critical near-term restoration project in the Louisiana Coastal Area, Louisiana Ecosystem Restoration Study Report (LCA Report 2004). As a component of this report, the project was recommended for conditional authorization by the Chief of Engineers on January 31, 2005. The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works (ASA-CW), after obtaining the concurrence of the Office of Management and Budget, provided his report on the Louisiana Coastal Area to Congress on November 18, 2005. Title VII of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007, P.L. 110-114, Section 7006(c)(1)(C) authorizes construction of the Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline Restoration project in accordance with the restoration plan in the Report of the Chief of Engineers dated January 2005, contingent on completion of a construction report documenting any modifications to the Chief’s Report, approval of the Secretary of the Army, and submission to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Section 7006(c)(4) of WRDA 2007 states that the cost of a project shall not exceed 150 % of the cost of such project set forth in Section 7006(c)(1) of WRDA 2007. The cost of the BBBS project set forth in Section 7006(c)(1)(C) of WRDA 2007 is $242,600,000. Therefore, as currently authorized, the Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline alternatives are limited to a cost of $363,900,000. The Barataria Basin barrier shoreline is a regional segment of the Gulf coast of Louisiana that is situated between the west bank of the Mississippi River at the active delta and the eastern shore of Terrebonne Bay. This restoration project would reconstruct coastal landforms of the barrier shoreline in the Barataria Basin to restore the barrier shoreline ecosystem and significantly reduce the loss of estuarine and freshwater wetlands. The Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline is divided into six reaches. Initial study efforts considered shoreline restoration for five of these reaches in the Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline. Several ecosystem restoration projects along the Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline have been constructed, or are in the planning and construction phases under other authorities. The LCA Report identified restoration of the Caminada Headland and Shell Island Reaches as a critical near-term project for the Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline. The proposed action to be evaluated in this report is the restoration of the Caminada Headland and Shell Island through shoreline and marsh restoration. The purpose of the proposed action is to restore the geomorphic form and function of the barrier shoreline. Restoration of the shoreline and coastal marshes of Caminada Headland and Shell Island would restore critical habitat, form and function, and long-term sustainability of the barrier shoreline. The proposed action would help restore the diversity and sustainability of coastal habitats. These barrier landforms, along with their related hydrologic and biological processes, provide unique biologically diverse habitats that are crucial to the viability of migratory birds, commercial and recreational fisheries, and a great variety of terrestrial and aquatic species. This document is an Integrated Construction Report and Environmental Impact Statement. The scope of this document is the evaluation of the restoration of the ________________________________________________________________________ LCA BBBS Final Construction Report and FEIS i Caminada Headland and Shell Island reaches within the Barataria Basin barrier shoreline. The report provides a description of the planning process used to identify the Recommended Plan; specifies implementation responsibilities and cost estimates; and presents a tentative recommendation for construction of the Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline Restoration project. This report has been prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Engineering Regulation (ER) 1105-2- 100. The requirements of Section 404(r) of Public Law 92-500, as amended, have been met. A PL 92-500, Section 404(b)(1) analysis has been completed. A Section 401 Water Quality Certification will be requested from the State of Louisiana. PROJECT LOCATION The project location for the BBBS study is divided into two reaches. (Figure ES-1) The Caminada Headland, forming the western portion of the Barataria Basin barrier system, has experienced some of the highest rates of shoreline retreat on the Louisiana or Gulf coast. The Caminada Headland is defined as the area south of Louisiana Highway 1 between Belle Pass and Caminada Pass. The headland is separated from East Timbalier Island to the west by Belle Pass and from Grand Isle to the east by Caminada Pass. Spits have formed at either end of the headland. The 13-mile long shoreline is narrow and has numerous storm overwashes. Shell Island used to enclose both Bastian Bay and Shell Island Bay but has since disintegrated into several smaller islands and shoals. Currently, there are a few remaining islands and shoal remnants. The island now consists primarily of open water with little beach or saline marsh habitat. Due to the continuing and extensive land loss, Shell Island is gradually converting to a series of interconnecting bays directly connected to the Gulf of Mexico. The Shell Island Reach stretches approximately 2.5 miles, from Grand Bayou Pass to the Empire Waterway. ________________________________________________________________________ LCA BBBS Final Construction Report and FEIS ii Figure ES-1 Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline PROJECT OBJECTIVES The two reaches of the Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline project area are almost entirely uninhabited, but they