Posted on August 21, 2024
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act, has issued a Notice of Availability of the Supplemental Environmental Assessment (SEA) and proposed Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Picayune Strand Restoration Project (PSRP) Miller Berm, Collier County, Florida.
The proposed change includes the following:
a. An update to the Picayune Strand Road Plan identifying which roads will be removed and which will be left in place.
b. As part of the road plan, leaving a section of Miller Boulevard in place, 64th avenue to 80th avenue, and maintaining it as a berm to deflect water south protecting red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) habitat.
The 2004 PSRP Final Project Implementation Report and Environmental Impact Statement to which this SEA is supplementing, presented the results and recommendation for investigations into restoration of natural water flow across 94 square miles of western Collier County that were drained for an extensive residential development. The updated road plan will be incorporated into the construction that is currently ongoing at PSRP. The use of a part of Miller Blvd as berm will minimize impacts to RCW clusters that would have been severely impacted by the predicted hydrologic changes once full restoration is complete. No new features or construction is being proposed as part of this SEA. The SEA identifies that no significant environmental impacts will occur should the Miller Berm be left in place.
The draft SEA and proposed FONSI are available for your review on the Jacksonville District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Environmental Documents website at https://www.saj.usace.army.mil/About/Divisions-Offices/Planning/Environmental-Branch/Environmental-Documents/ under Collier County, bottom row.
USACE is requesting that any comments be submitted via email to Samuel.H.Hans@usace.army.mil within 30 days of the date of this letter. Questions concerning the proposed action can be submitted to Mr. Samuel Hans by email or contact him by phone at (904) 232-1036.
