FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY, JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, TO MIAMI, FLORIDA MAINTENANCE DREDGING Prepared by U. S. Army Engineer District, Jacksonville Jacksonville, Florida May 1974 INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY. JACKSONVILLE TO MIAMI MAINTENANCE DREDGING ( ) Draft (X) Final Responsible Office: U. S. Army Engineer District, Jacksonville, Florida. 1. Name of Action: (X) Administrative ( ) Legislative 2. Description of Action: Eleven shoals are to be removed from this section of the Intracoastal Waterway as a part of the regular main­ tenance program. 3. a. Environmental Impacts. About 172,200 cubic yards of shoal material in the channel will be removed by hydraulic dredge and placed in diked upland areas and as nourishment on a county park beach south of Jupiter Inlet. b. Adverse Environmental Effects. Dredging will have a temporary adverse effect on water quality and will destroy benthic organisms in both the shoal material and on the beach. In addition, some turtle nests at the beach nourishment site may be destroyed. 4. Alternatives. Consideration was given to alternate methods of spoil disposal. It was determined that the methods selected (as described in paragraph 1) would best accomplish the purpose of the project while minimizing adverse impact on the environment. 5. Comments received on the draft statement in response to the 3 November 1972 coordination letter: Respondent Date of Comments U. S. Coast Guard 7 November 1972 U. S. Department of Agriculture 8 November 1972 Florida State Museum 8 November 1972 Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services 14 November 1972 Florida Department of Transportation 20 November 1972 Florida Department of Natural Resources 30 November 1972 Environmental Protection Agency 8 December 1972 Florida G&FWFC 13 December 1972 U. S. Department of the Interior 18 December 1972 Assistant Secretary of Commerce 19 December 1972 Respondent Date of Comments Florida Board of Trustees 19 December 1972 Florida Department of Natural Resources 20 December 1972 Florida Department of Administration 22 December 1972 Office of Economic Opportunity 10 January 1973 6. Draft statement to CEQ 2/21/73. Final statement to CEQ2 4 JAN 1Q75 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY, JACKSONVILLE TO MIAMI 1. Project description. The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway provides a sheltered continuous route for commercial and recreational boat traffic from Boston, Massachusetts, to Key West, Florida, along the east coast of the United States. The route is generally in open water from Boston to about 40 miles south of New York. The Federal Intracoastal Waterway project extends from Trenton, New Jersey, to Key West, Florida, a distance of 1,614 miles, via a channel dredged through bays, sounds and land cuts. The project also provides for numerous side channels and basins of various points along its length. The authorized depth of the main channel is 12 feet from Trenton to Ft. Pierce, Florida, 10 feet from Ft. Pierce to Miami, Florida, and 7 feet from Miami to Key West. This statement is 'concerned mainly with the Florida section of the waterway, the Jacksonville-to-Miami project, a 349-mile reach that traverses 11 coastal counties in Florida. The 11 counties are Duval, St. Johns, Flagler, Volusia, Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade. Dredging north of mile 119.7 and south of mile 296.7 is not required at this time. Periodic maintenance of the waterway is authorized and required under House Document 740-79-2, enacted 2 March 1945, which calls for a 12-foot channel, 125 feet wide, between Jacksonville and Miami. This was subsequently modified by the Chief of Engineers' report 22 July 1960 to require a 12- by 125-foot channel from Jacksonville to Ft. Pierce and a 10- x 125-foot channel from Ft. Pierce to Miami. Purpose of the maintenance is to insure safe navigation on the project channel by removal of shoals to bring the channel to required depth. Based on previous records, annual maintenance dredging requires the removal of approximately 280,000 cubic yards annually. About 172,200 cubic yards of material is scheduled to be removed from the channel in FY-74. Location of the shoal areas and the proposed disposal areas are shown on figures 1 through 5. Proceeding from north to south, the shoals, disposal sites, and estimated extent of dredging are listed by numbers 1 through 11 for convenient identification in this report. They begin north of New Smyrna Beach at mile 119.7 on the waterway and extend south to near the entrance to Lake Worth at mile 296.7. They are as follows: a. Mile 119.7. Located in Cut V-20 between Halifax Estates and Wilbur-by-the-Sea, about 1-1/2 miles south of Highway A1A bridge at Port Orange. About 11,000 cubic yards are to be removed from the channel and placed on disposal area MSA 434-A, a spoil island created by a previous project. This site is immediately adjacent to the channel on the west side. The shoal material is fine sand. b. Mile 132.0. Located in Cut V-38 near the town of Edgewater, about 1 mile south of New Smyrna Beach. Approximately 17,600 cubic yards of sand and shell are to be removed from the channel in Indian River North and placed on disposal areas D/A-MSA-436 and D/A-E. Both sites are islands on the east side of the channel, created by material from previous projects. c. Mile 133.0. Located in Cut V-39 near the town of Edgewater and about 1 mile south of the previous shoal. Approximately 10,000 cubic yards of sand and shell are to be removed and placed on Disposal Area D/A-F, slightly north of the shoal and on the east side of the channel. This site also is an island created by previous work on the waterway. d. Mile 136.2. Located in Cut V-42 near Packwood Place, 3.2 miles south of the previous shoal. About 10,300 cubic yards of sand and shell are to be dredged and placed on Disposal Area D/A-H. This also is a spoil island created by the previous project, and is located on the east side of the channel about 1/4-mile north of the shoal. e. Mile 248.7. Located in Cut SL-3N, about 400 feet north of Highway A1A bridge at Ft. Pierce. Approximately 2,000 cubic yards of sand are to be removed from the Indian River channel and placed on a spoil island about 1/4-mile north of the shoal area and 1,000 feet east of the channel. This spoil site has been designated as D/A-(T-4ll). f. Mile 271.0. Located in Cut M-5 immediately south of the intersection of the Intracoastal Waterway and the Okeechobee Waterway. About 27,500 cubic yards of sand are scheduled to be removed from the channel and placed on upland Disposal Area T-420. The spoil location is adjacent to the shoal on the east bank of the Indian River channel. g. Mile 286.7. Located in Cut P-1 about 3/4-mile north of the Waterway intersection with Jupiter River. Some 40,500 cubic yards of material are to be removed and placed in Disposal Area D/A-J. This disposal area is on the beach at a county park immediately south of the inlet at the mouth of the Jupiter River. h. Mile 287.2. Located in Cut P-2, approximately 1/4-mile north of the intersection with Jupiter River. About 3,300 cubic yards of sand are to be dredged from the channel at this point and placed in Disposal Area D/A-J as beach nourishment. i. Mile 287.5. Located in Cuts P-3 and P-4, at the intersection of the Waterway and Jupiter River. Approximately 33,300 cubic yards of sand are to be excavated from the channel and pumped to Disposal Area D/A-J to be used as beach nourishment. j. Mile 288.0. Located in Cuts P-5 and.P-6, about 800 feet west of Highway 1 bridge over Jupiter River. A total of 12,300 cubic yards is to be removed and placed in Disposal Area D/A-J as beach nourish­ ment. k. Mile 296.7. Located in Cut P-31 on both sides of Highway A1A bridge over the Lake Worth Creek Channel. This is about 1/3-mile west of the Waterway entrance to Lake Worth. About 4,400 cubic yards of sand are to be dredged from the channel and placed in Disposal Area T-611 and T-612. The disposal site is located on the west bank of the channel about 3/4-mile north of the shoal area. It is anticipated that annual maintenance dredging operations of the channel will be required and the quantity of material requiring removal will not be significantly different from past annual quantities. A comprehensive supplement to this statement on the waterway will be prepared as further studies are made. This supplement will include data such as: (1) An inventory of disposal areas reflecting parcels which are unsuitable for further use, those which are suitable for further use, and definitive requirements for additional areas which will accommodate the deficit; (2) plans for the creation of spoil islands for future use as recreation or maintenance spoil islands in reaches of the waterways where upland areas are potentially unavailable; (3) those reaches of the waterway where excavated material is suitable for beach nourishment, and pumping distance, availability of pipeline easements and the like are such that this is a feasible alternative to spoiling elsewhere; and (4) areas where advance maintenance (over­ depth dredging) is required to effect economy.