Corps to hold joint public hearing on Jameson Island Project
KANSAS CITY, Mo.— The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Kansas City District has announced plans to hold a joint public hearing with the Missouri Clean Water Commission on the Jameson Island Shallow Water Habitat Project.
The hearing will be held on June 11 at the Department of Natural Resources at 1101 Riverside Drive, Jefferson City, Mo., in the LaCharrette/Nightingale Creek Conference Room beginning at 9 a.m.
The Corps’ habitat restoration efforts along the Missouri River are currently ongoing in Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska but were voluntarily halted in 2007 in Missouri when concerns about sediment placement in the river were raised by the Missouri Clean Water Commission.
To address these concerns the Corps enlisted the National Academies to conduct an independent study of sediment issues on the Missouri River. The National Academies completed their report in 2011, and the Corps has incorporated the findings from that report, along with site specific and programmatic water quality information, into a Project Implementation Report on the Jameson Island Unit Shallow Water Habitat Restoration Project. The PIR was released to the public on March 30.
The Jameson Island Unit Shallow Water Habitat (SWH) Restoration Project is a component of the Corps’ overall MRRP. 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 a result of the construction of the Corps’ BSNP 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, Missouri. The project would restore 30 acres of SWH (27-acre chute and 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 Corps held an open forum public meeting on April 17 and addressed the Clean Water Commission on May 2. They also extended the public comment period on the project an additional 60 days, until June 30, 2012, in response to stakeholder requests.
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.
For additional information on the proposed project, you should contact the Army Corps of Engineers Project Manager at 816-389-3019. A 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 until close of business on June 30, 2012.
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