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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 30 / Wednesday, February 17, 2021 / Rules and Regulations todays disposal practices were to continue unchanged i.e., if an average of 1 million cy of entrance channel sand per year were to continue being disposed of at HOODS indefinitely, the site would reach capacity again in about 75 years. In contrast, the smaller expansion alternative would provide effective capacity for about 30 years of disposal. This smaller footprint would also limit on-site management options compared to the selected action.
When determining the size of the modified site, the ability to implement effective monitoring and surveillance programs was considered to ensure that the environment of the site could be protected, and that navigational safety would not be compromised by the mounding of dredged material. The EPA
and USACE have demonstrated that the modified HOODS area is feasible to manage and monitor, as shown by successful surveys in 2008 and 2014.
The updated SMMP Appendix D of the Final EA describes the future monitoring and management activities that the EPA and USACE will implement to confirm that disposal at the site is not significantly affecting adjacent areas.
d EPA will, wherever feasible, designate ocean dumping sites beyond the edge of the continental shelf and other such sites where historical disposal has occurred. 40 CFR
228.5e.
The continental shelf break is approximately 10 nmi offshore at Eureka, California. The Zone of Siting Feasibility ZSF analysis prepared by USACE in support of the original 1995
HOODS designation determined that an economically practicable ocean disposal site serving Humboldt Harbor could not be located off the continental shelf, but rather would have to be within approximately 4 nmi from the ends of the entrance channel jetties. The original HOODS boundary is 2.5 to 3.7
nmi from these jetties. The modified HOODS boundary will extend from 3
nmi to 5 nmi from the jetties, largely encompassing and superseding the original boundary. While portions of the modified site are slightly beyond the original ZSF threshold of 4 nmi, the expansion area remains as close to the entrance channel as practicable while allowing capacity for future disposal needs without creating potentially unsafe mounding. Also, the modified HOODS will occur immediately adjacent to where disposal of virtually identical dredged material has occurred for the past 25 years. This allows the least area to be disturbed overall from ongoing and future disposal activity.

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Specific Criteria 40 CFR 228.6
1 Geographical Position, Depth of Water, Bottom Topography and Distance from Coast. 40 CFR
228.6a1.
The modified HOODS is on the continental shelf three to five nmi offshore of Eureka, California, in water depths of approximately 150 to 210 feet 45 to 64 m. The seafloor in this area is comprised of a gently sloping, essentially featureless sedimentary plain that grades evenly from fine sand in shallower depths to silts in deeper areas. The EA contains a map of the modified HOODS boundaries.
2 Location in Relation to Breeding, Spawning, Nursery, Feeding, or Passage Areas of Living Resources in Adult or Juvenile Phases. 40 CFR 228.6a2.
The HOODS area provides feeding and breeding areas for common resident benthic organisms, fish, marine mammal, turtle, and seabird species.
However, the modified HOODS
boundaries have been selected to avoid the presence of any unique or limited breeding, spawning, nursery, feeding, or passage areas for adult or juvenile phases of living resources and modification of the site is not expected to affect any geographically limited i.e., unique resources or habitats. Informal Endangered Species Act ESA
consultation with USFWS, and both ESA and Essential Fish Habitat EFH
consultations with NMFS, confirmed that ongoing disposal operations in the modified HOODS will not have significant impacts to sensitive living resources or their habitats.
3 Location in Relation to Beaches and Other Amenity Areas. 40 CFR
228.6a3.
The modified HOODS boundaries begin at approximately three nmi offshore and the square site extends two nmi further offshore. The site is therefore well removed from beaches or amenity areas, and currents in the area are not expected to transport material disposed at HOODS toward shore. No significant impacts to beaches or amenity areas associated with use of the existing HOODS have been detected.
4 Types and Quantities of Wastes Proposed to be Disposed of, and Proposed Methods of Release, including Methods of Packing the Waste, if any.
40 CFR 228.6a4.
Only suitable dredged material that meets the Ocean Dumping Criteria in 40
CFR 220228 and receives a permit or is otherwise authorized for dumping by the USACE, and concurred with by EPA, will be disposed in the modified HOODS. Dredged materials dumped in this area will be primarily sand with
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some fines, and most will originate from Humboldt Harbor. Average yearly disposal of dredged material is expected to continue to be approximately 1,000,000 cubic yards, primarily by government owned or contracted hopper dredges. None of the material is packaged in any manner. If a Nearshore Sand Placement Site NSPS is established nearby in the future, the volume of sand disposed at HOODS
could substantially decrease.
5 Feasibility of Surveillance and Monitoring. 40 CFR 228.6a5.
The EPA expects monitoring and surveillance at the modified HOODS to continue to be feasible and readily performed from ocean or regional class research vessels. The area of the modified HOODS has been successfully surveyed and sampled in 2008 and 2014. The EPA and USACE will continue to periodically monitor the site for physical, biological and chemical attributes, as described in the draft SMMP for the proposed modified site.
6 Dispersal, Horizontal Transport and Vertical Mixing Characteristics of the Area, including Prevailing Current Direction and Velocity, if any. 40 CFR
228.6a6.
Ocean current monitoring in the vicinity of HOODS has confirmed both upand down-coast current directions depending on the season, with nearsurface current velocities on the order of 25 cm/sec 0.5 knot, and deeper-water current velocities of 20 cm/sec 0.4
knot at 45 meters deep and 15 cm/sec 0.3 knot at the bottom. These current conditions have not adversely affected the ability to successfully and precisely dispose of dredged material permitted or authorized for disposal at HOODS in the past nor are they expected to affect disposal in the future.
7 Existence and Effects of Current and Previous Discharges and Dumping in the Area including Cumulative Effects. 40 CFR 228.6a7.
Previous disposal of dredged material at the existing HOODS has resulted in mounding of sand and burial of benthic organisms within the site but no discernable physical, chemical, or biological effects outside the site. Water quality effects from active disposal are temporary, spatially limited, and return to background levels prior to the next disposal event. Short-term, long-term, and cumulative effects of dredged material disposal in the modified site would be negligible, and similar to those for the existing HOODS.
The only discharge in the vicinity of HOODS is from DG Fairhaven Power LLCs Fairhaven Power Facility on the Samoa Peninsula. Fairhaven Power is permitted to discharge a maximum of
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