The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Vicksburg District) (“Corps”) issued a July 23rd public notice (“Notice”) regarding a Section 404 Clean Water Act application by Entergy Services, LLC (“Entergy”).
The application requests authorization for the placement of dredged and fill material into waters of the united states associated with the construction of a secondary access road.
The applicant is stated to be proposing to construct a secondary access road from U.S. Highway 67 to the existing Entergy Hot Springs Power Generation Facility.
The Notice states that an approximately 100-footwide right-of-way would be cleared for the approximately 40-foot-wide road. The road will be constructed to an elevation approximately 3 feet above ground surface within known wetland areas. Ditches would be installed on either side of the road and designed to route water in a way that does not impede natural drainage within the project site.
The proposed project would permanently impact wetlands through construction and operational activities. Construction of the access road would result in the permanent clearing and fill of approximately 3.03 acres of forested wetlands, permanent clearing of approximately 0.65 acres of forested wetlands, and permanent dredging of approximately 1.06 acres of forested wetlands. Further, approximately 120 linear feet of intermittent stream channel would receive fill in the form of crushed stone and culverting.
In terms of avoidance and mitigation, the Notice states that Entergy has attempted to minimize wetland impacts by designing the facility in areas of the property that are mostly occupied by uplands.
Mitigation is stated to be planned by acquisition from an approved mitigation bank located within the same watershed as the impacts.
The Notice also addresses:
- Cultural resources.
- Endangered species.
- Navigation.
- Essential fish habitat.
- Section 408.
- Water quality certification.
- Evaluation.
- Solicitation of comments.
A copy of the Notice can be found here.
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