Missouri River Water Management News

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Public comments sought on draft integrated letter report, programmatic environmental assessment for inspection stations in Upper Missouri River Basin

USACE, Omaha District
Published Feb. 16, 2021

A draft integrated letter report and programmatic environmental assessment has been developed to determine the economic and environmental impacts of federal participation in state-managed watercraft inspection programs along the Upper Missouri River Basin in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. Public comments on the draft EA will be accepted until March 2, 2021.

The existing watercraft inspection programs are managed collaboratively by the states of Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska, where watercraft transported along highways are inspected for the presence of aquatic invasive species and decontaminated when detected.

If approved, federal participation in the program would be cost-shared (50 percent) with each of the states, and would employ a regional strategy to identify locations that would provide the greatest likelihood of preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species to reservoirs operated and maintained by the Corps in the Upper Missouri River Basin.

Several strategies that could be used include: (1) Expanding the number of locations or hours of operation at existing inspection stations (2) Adding canine detection capabilities, (3) Increasing public awareness (4) Constructing site improvements and (5) Augmenting existing monitoring efforts and contingency and response planning efforts.

The public is encouraged to provide comments on the draft integrated letter report and programmatic environmental assessment, which is available for viewing at: www.nwo.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Planning/Project-Reports/

Comments can be mailed to: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District; CENWO-PMA-C; ATTN: Clayton Ridenour, Watercraft Inspection EA, 1616 Capitol Avenue, Omaha, NE 68102-4901. Comments can also be emailed to: cenwo-planning@usace.army.mil. Comments must be postmarked or received no later than March 2, 2021.

This draft EA is consistent with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended, the Council on Environmental Quality’s regulations for implementing NEPA (40 CFR 1500-1508), the Corps’ regulations for implementing NEPA (33 CFR 325 and Engineering Regulation 200-2-2) and other applicable environmental laws and regulations.


Release no. 21-011