Draft Alabama Swift Tract Living Shoreline Project: Supplemental Environmental Assessment


The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the largest maritime oil spill in U.S. history. It resulted in the discharge of millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Under the Oil Pollution Act (OPA), those responsible for an oil spill incur liability to clean up the oil and to restore injured public natural resources. As a result, federal and state natural resource trustees, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the US Department of Agriculture, and trustee agencies from the states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, are leading efforts to assess and restore affected Gulf resources.

A global settlement reached on April 4, 2016 has allowed the trustees to move forward with the Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan/Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PDARP/PEIS). The settlement agreement includes a funding schedule that will extend through 2031. During that timeframe the trustees will provide many opportunities for public participation, such as during plan scoping and when draft restoration plans are available for public review and comment.

Consistent with the PDARP/PEIS, the Alabama Trustee Implementation Group (TIG) prepared a Restoration Plan III/Environmental Assessment: Provide and Enhance Recreational Opportunities and Birds. Among the projects included in the restoration plan is the Swift Tract Living Shoreline Project. The AL TIG has now prepared for public comment, a draft supplemental Environmental Assessment for the Swift Tract Living Shoreline Project.

The trustees are proposing to relocate rock material in the vicinity of the Alabama Swift Tract Living Shoreline Project to another nearby breakwater structure. The rock material may have been placed in the current locations as part of the project but could potentially cause recreational, navigational, or other impacts and need to be moved—as described in the supplement document.

Because the removal and placement of materials is located outside of the project's originally evaluated action area, the Alabama Trustee Implementation Group is evaluating these activities in a supplemental environmental assessment. The Draft Supplemental Environmental Assessment includes details about the proposed activities and the environmental analysis, and is consistent with the Final Phase III Early Restoration Plan.
 
Comment Period: Closed        Feb 24, 2022 - Mar 28, 2022
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