This Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) has been developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Norfolk District and its non-Federal sponsor, the Virginia Port Authority (VPA), in accordance with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) (42 USC 4321-4347), 40 CFR Parts 1500-1508, and 33 CFR Parts 230 and 325. This document has been prepared to assess a range of alternatives and to evaluate the potential environmental consequences of those alternatives including the proposed eastward expansion of the Craney Island Dredged Material Management Area (CIDMMA) and subsequent development of a marine containerized cargo terminal complex (container port) on the new cell.
A notice of availability of the Draft EIS (DEIS) was published in the Federal Register on September 23, 2005. The 45-day comment period for the DEIS ended on November 7, 2005. Seventy letters and over 200 comments were received. These comments were analyzed and considered in preparing this FEIS, and responses to comments appear in the document.
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The National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, requires that Federal agencies prepare a detailed Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS, for any of their actions that significantly affect the quality of the environment. In accordance with NEPA, the Corps evaluated all reasonable alternatives to avoid and minimize impacts to the environment resulting from the Craney Island project. The EIS, which was approved in October 2006, details the unavoidable impacts which will be compensated for through an extensive environmental mitigation plan. An environmental mitigation plan works to implement measures that limit, prevent, and compensate for the impacts of projects. In developing the mitigation plan for the Craney Island Eastward Expansion, environmental experts considered over 30 local sites along the Elizabeth and James Rivers which might benefit from significant environmental improvement. Thirty years ago, such sites were not shielded by modern environmental protections, making their current polluted state a relic of Portsmouth’s industrial past. The mitigation plan will employ a landscape approach which encourages the preservation of biodiversity, or varied life forms in a given ecosystem. This approach is utilized to establish connectivity between various life forms -- meaning through wetlands restoration, sediment clean up, and oyster reef creation the overall ecosystem of the river can be improved. |
