Posted on October 15, 2025
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — (October 14, 2025) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District (Corps) has issued a proposed Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and Environmental Assessment (EA) for the maintenance dredging of the federally authorized Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIWW) within waters of the Nassau Reach 1 channel in Nassau County, Florida.
The Reach 1 project area is within the federally authorized AIWW channel and the non-Federal sponsor (NFS) for this project is the Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND).
Construction of the AIWW initially occurred in 1913, followed by a 1938 dredging event in which the AIWW, including Reach 1, was widened to 90-150 feet and deepened to 12 feet. The first O&M dredging event the Corps performed in Reach 1 occurred in 1982. The NFS (FIND) reevaluated dredged material management alternatives for Reach I in 2006 and performed O&M dredging within critically shoaled areas of Reach 1 in 2017. Critical shoaling has redeveloped within the Reach 1 channel since this last dredging action, thereby hindering safe and efficient vessel navigation. The Reach 1 channel is heavily utilized for navigational purposes in both a recreational and commercial capacity.
The AIWW Reach 1, as defined by FIND, is approximately 10.25 miles long, beginning near Fernandina Beach and extending through the unincorporated community of Nassauville just north of Black Hammock Island. The purpose of the project is to provide safe and efficient vessel navigation within the federal AIWW channel. The EA analyzes the potential effects of dredging the Reach 1 channel to maintain the authorized depth of -12 feet mean lower low water (MLLW), as well as potential placement of beach quality material on Amelia Island State Park and placement of non-beach quality material in Dredged Material Management Areas (DMMA) NA-1 and DU-2 (Figure 1).
The proposed FONSI and EA are available for 30 days on the Jacksonville District’s Environmental planning website, under Nassau County:
On that page, click the “+” next to “Nassau” and scroll down to the project name.
