The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Kansas City District (NWK), has conducted an environmental assessment (EA) in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended. In the draft Environmental Assessment for Plowboy Bend Interception and Rearing Complex (IRC) Project, dated May 2023, USACE assessed the effects to the human environment of the proposed project. The goal of this project is to test the hypothesis that mostly passive, free-floating pallid sturgeon embryos and larvae are entrained in the thalweg, the deepest and fastest flowing portion of the constructed navigation channel, and are unable to move to the channel margins where adequate food production and foraging opportunities exist. The USACE Proposed Action is to modify hydraulic conditions by adjusting river structures within the Plowboy Bend project site to increase interception of these free-drifting sturgeon embryos from the channel thalweg and move them into suitable nursery habitat along the channel margins. Included with the draft EA is a draft 404(B)(1) evaluation that documents Clean Water Act compliance.
USACE is soliciting public comments on the draft EA during a 90-day review period that opens June 5, 2023 and will close September 3, 2023. Comments may be submitted to Blake McPherren, Kansas City District Environmental Resource Specialist, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, at (816) 389-3470 or by email at blake.d.mcpherren@usace.army.mil. All comments to this public notice should be received no later than September 3, 2023.