USACE welcomes comment on new proposal through March 7
By Margaret Bauman - February 12, 2022
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials have opened a public comment period through March 7 on a proposal from the Native Village of Eyak to modify its existing permit, approved in 2017, for its oil spill response facility and deep-water port in the Shepard Point.
Construction on the project, funded through a $40 million federal transportation grant to NVE, was set to begin in early 2022, but now faces delays because of the request to modify the plan.
Once the comment period ends, the Corps will look at the substance of the comments and make a decision within 90 to 120 days on whether to approve the modifications, according to USACE spokesman Bryan Herczeg. The proposed modifications are design changes which would purportedly have less impact on waters of the United States, he said.
The proposed permit modifications would include road realignment near Humpback Creek; reduction of road length from 4.5 miles to 4.32 miles; a bridge over No-name Creek rather than Orca Creek; increasing the pad and staging area of the Shepard Point pad from 3.5 miles to 5.5 miles; installation of interlocking steel sheet pile retaining wall at the pad and staging area; and a change in configuration of the boat ramp.
A seventh proposed modification asks for removal of a special condition from the permit that NVE said prevents impacts om two properties eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
NVE’s executive director Bert Adams, was traveling on personal leave and not immediately available for comment on the proposed modifications.
Carol Hoover, executive director of the Eyak Preservation Council, meanwhile urged comment to the Corps on the proposed modifications.
“This is every Cordovan’s chance to be heard,” Hoover said.
“The question: ‘Is turning Cordova into a port city in the long-term best interest of our fishing community?’ Some believe so. Some believe not. Whether it be for oil spill response, the cruise ship industry, creating another income generator, or just building another road to drive down, your voice will make a difference, or be the difference,” she said. “Write to the Army Corps of Engineers about this road and deep-water port project during this comment period.”
All comments regarding the proposed modifications should be sent to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District Regulatory Division, CEPOA-RD, 2204 3rd Street, P.O. Box 6898, JBER, Alaska 99506-0898, or via email to regpagemaster@usace.army.mil.
The full text of the Corps public notice with associated maps and drawings, is at poa.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/PublicNotices.aspx.
The project is to include a dock and small port to serve as the proposed Shepard Point Marine Transportation and Oil Spill Response Facility, as well as a central location for tribal members and members of the broader community to develop marine support services.
NVE’s Adams said earlier that the facility would allow the Tribal government to protect and preserve the important traditional resources in the region. In an earlier statement on the project, in January 2021, Adams noted that the Eyak people have been stewards of the lands and waters of this area for thousands of years.
“Following the Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) settlement the Eyak people strived to secure a spill response facility on the Cordova side of Prince William Sound, to protect habitat and traditional resources,” he said. “This facility is the third and final oil spill response center mandated by the EVOS settlement, in the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster in Prince William Sound, and the last one to be approved and funded under the Nationally Significant Federal Lands and Tribal Projects Program.”