KANSAS CITY, Mo.—The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Kansas City District has issued a public notice announcing plans to extend the comment period and hold a public hearing on their Jameson Island Unit Shallow Water Habitat Restoration Project an additional 60 days, until June 30, 2012.
David Hoover, Corps’ biologist said, “There is a good deal of interest in this project and we want to ensure that our Missouri River stakeholders have adequate time to review and comment on the Project Implementation Report with Integrated Environmental Assessment and Section 404(b)(1) Evaluation.”
Comments can be submitted by mail or emailed to addresses listed in the public notice. All comments received by the close of the comment period will be included and addressed in the Army Corps’ final report.
“Although the Corps already held a beneficial and well attended public information meeting for this project on April 17 in Arrow Rock, the public hearing will give interested stakeholders an additional opportunity to have the Corps hear their oral comments which will also be transcribed to become part of the official record,” said Hoover.
Details on the time and location of the public hearing were not listed in the public notice but will be posted on the Corps website when available. The transcript from the public hearing will be included and comments addressed in the Corps’ final report.
The Jameson Island Unit Shallow Water Habitat Restoration Project is a component of the Army Corps’ overall Missouri River Recovery Program. The Corps is working cooperatively with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge on their existing public land to mitigate a portion of the diverse aquatic habitat that was lost as the result of the construction of the Army Corps’ Missouri River Bank Stabilization and Navigation Project by restoring SWH through construction of a side channel chute and a backwater. The project is located on the Refuge’s Jameson Island Unit, on the right descending bank of the Missouri River, near river miles 210.5 to 211.7, near the town of Arrow Rock, Saline County, Mo.
The project would restore 30 acres of SWH (a 27-acre chute and a 3-acre backwater) and the dynamic river processes which maintain it for the benefit of native fish and wildlife species, including the endangered pallid sturgeon. The project has been developed to maintain the existing congressionally authorized project purposes of the Missouri River.
For additional information on the proposed project or the Public Hearing you should contact the Army Corps’ Project Manager at (816) 389-3019. The public notice and DRAFT Project Implementation Report are available on the Corps’ website at: www.nwk.usace.army.mil/regulatory/CurrentPN/currentnotices.htm. Comments on the proposed project can be submitted to the Corps on the project until close of business June 30, 2012.
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