The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is announcing the availability of the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) draft for the Lower Boardman River Restoration: Boardman, Sabin and Union Street Dams Project.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) prepared the environmental assessment (EA) and addendum titled “Feasibility Study for the Boardman River, Grand Traverse County, Michigan” as the lead federal agency pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process. The assessment and addendum provide a description of the overall project purpose and need, alternatives considered as part of the analysis, and an assessment of impacts from project alternatives. Since the USFWS was not a cooperating agency on the USACE’s EA, we are requesting public comment on the draft FONSI, before adopting the USACE’s EA.
Alternatives considered in detail as part of the draft FONSI include the following: no action (Alternative 1), modification of the Union Street Dam and Removal of the Sabin and Boardman Dams (Alternative 5), and removal of Sabin Dam (Alternative 6).
The USACE’s EA and addendum can be found at http://www.lre.usace.army.mil/Missions/Environmental-Services/Feasibility-Study-for-Boardman-River/
The draft FONSI is available for public review on the following website or upon request from rick_westerhof@fws.gov. http://www.fws.gov/midwest/news/documents/DraftFONSIBoardman.pdf
Written comments must be submitted within 30 days of this announcement or by March 12, 2017 to:
Rick Westerhof
USFWS
6644 Turner Road
Elmira, MI 49730
Email: rick_westerhof@fws.gov
