The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Detroit District, has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) addressing the provision of suitable dredged material from Duluth-Superior Harbor to the State of Minnesota as a base for State-proposed aquatic habitat improvements. The
proposed action involves placing suitable material dredged from the federal
navigation project into the three aquatic habitat restoration sites in Duluth,
Minnesota. After the dredged material is
placed into each site, the State of Minnesota will manage the site towards
implementing their habitat restoration project.
The State’s habitat restoration project is a separate action under the
Remedial Action Plan (RAP) for the St. Louis River Area of Concern (SLRAOC)
with the goal of contributing towards removing beneficial use impairments
(BUIs), specifically “Degradation of Benthos” (BUI #4) and Loss of Fish and
Wildlife Habitat” (BUI #9), from the SLRAOC.
This USACE in-water dredged material placement would be conducted under
our Operations and Maintenance authority for the harbor. An Environmental Assessment (EA) was prepared
by USACE for all three sites and distributed for agency and public review in
February 2015.