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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 30 / Wednesday, February 17, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
the ocean associated with the federal project.
The draft Environmental Assessment EA supporting this action, along with other publicly available docket materials, was made available for public review at www.regulations.gov, and also on the EPA Region 9 web page: https
www.epa.gov/ocean-dumping/
humboldt-open-ocean-disposal-sitehoods-documents. EPA received comments from a total of four entities.
Comments received, and EPAs responses, are summarized below.
b. Location and Configuration of the Modified HOODS
This action is the modification by expansion of the original HOODS. The modified boundaries expand the original HOODS from one nmi2 to four nmi2 in size. The modified HOODS is in approximately 150 to 210 feet of water 45 to 64 meters. The location of the modified site is defined by the coordinates listed below. These new boundaries supersede and replace the original boundaries of HOODS. The coordinates for the expanded site are in North American Datum 83 NAD 83:
Modified HOODS Coordinates NAD 83
A 4050.300 N, 124018.017 W
B 4049.267 N, 12415.767 W
C 4047.550 N, 12417.083 W
D 4048.567 N, 12419.300 W

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The modification of the HOODS
boundary will allow the EPA to adaptively manage the site to maximize its capacity, manage mounding and loss of fine sediments outside of the site, and minimize the potential for any longterm adverse effects to the marine environment.
c. Management and Monitoring of the Site The modified HOODS is expected to continue to receive suitable dredged material from the Federal navigation project at Humboldt Harbor, California, and suitable dredged material from other local and regional dredging applicants who obtain an MPRSA
permit for the disposal of dredged material at the site. Under the Ocean Dumping regulations 40 CFR 228.3b, EPA is responsible for the management of all ocean disposal sites designated under the MPRSA. Management of the ocean disposal sites consists of regulating the times, quantity and characteristics of the material dumped at the site; establishing disposal controls, conditions and requirements to avoid and minimize potential impacts to the marine environment; and monitoring the site and surrounding environment to verify that
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unanticipated or significant adverse effects are not occurring from past or continued use of the ocean disposal site and that terms of the MPRSA permit are met. All persons using HOODS will be required to follow any project-specific permit conditions, as well as provisions of the updated Site Management and Monitoring Plan SMMP for the modified site as identified or incorporated into a permit or Federal project approval. The updated SMMP is available as an appendix to the Final EA, and separately at https
www.epa.gov/ocean-dumping/
humboldt-open-ocean-disposal-sitehoods-documents. It includes management and monitoring considerations to ensure that disposal activities will not unreasonably degrade or endanger the marine environment, human health, welfare, or economic potentialities. The updated SMMP for the modified HOODS also includes management conditions to ensure adverse mounding does not occur at the site, and that the minimum area of the modified site is affected by disposal in any year.
d. MPRSA Criteria In evaluating the modified HOODS, the EPA assessed the site according to the criteria of the MPRSA, with emphasis on the general and specific regulatory criteria of 40 CFR part 228, to determine whether the site modification action satisfies those criteria. The Final EA provides a detailed evaluation of the criteria and other related factors for the modification of HOODS.
General Criteria 40 CFR 228.5
a Sites must be selected to minimize interference with other activities in the marine environment, particularly avoiding areas of existing fisheries or shellfisheries, and regions of heavy commercial or recreational navigation.
40 CFR 228.5a.
The original 1995 site designation identified the HOODS location as having the least potential for adverse impacts to important fish and shellfish resources particularly including smelt, flatfish, and decapods which are all most abundant in waters shallower than 50 m in the area, closer to shore. In addition, as part of development of the Final EA supporting this action, the EPA completed informal consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service NMFS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service USFWS, and confirmed that ongoing use of the modified HOODS would continue to avoid adverse effects on existing fisheries, shellfisheries, or habitats of concern. In addition, expansion of
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HOODS will ensure that mounding of disposed sand does not occur to the extent that the wave climate near the Humboldt entrance channel is altered and adversely affects navigation conditions. This action therefore satisfies this MPRSA criterion.
b Sites must be situated such that temporary perturbations to water quality or other environmental conditions during initial mixing caused by disposal operations would be reduced to normal ambient levels or undetectable contaminant concentrations or effects before reaching any beach, shoreline, marine sanctuary, or known geographically limited fishery or shellfishery. 40 CFR 228.5b.
The HOODS modification area will be used for disposal of suitable dredged material as determined by Section 102
of the MPRSA, 33 U.S.C. 1412, and the Ocean Dumping Criteria published at 40
CFR 220228. Based on the USACE and EPA dredged material testing and evaluation procedures, disposal of dredged maintenance material and proposed new work material is not expected to have any significant impact on water quality. The existing and modified HOODS boundaries are located sufficiently far from shore and fisheries resources to allow temporary water quality disturbances caused by disposal of dredged material to be reduced to ambient conditions before reaching any environmentally sensitive areas.
c The sizes of disposal sites will be limited in order to localize for identification and control any immediate adverse impacts, and to permit the implementation of effective monitoring and surveillance to prevent adverse long-range impacts. Size, configuration, and location are to be determined as part of the disposal site evaluation. 40 CFR 228.5d.
The location, size, and configuration of the modified HOODS boundaries provide long-term capacity, while also permitting effective site management, site monitoring, and limiting environmental impacts to the surrounding area to the greatest extent practicable.
The Final EA supporting this action considered two alternatives for modifying HOODS: Expansion by 0.5
nmi to the north and west; and expansion by 1.0 nmi to the north and west the selected action. Under the selected action, the effective total capacity of the site increases from the original 25 million cy to over 100
million cy i.e., allowing for 75 million cy of additional disposal to occur, before mounding to 130 feet could again occur across the entire site. If
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