SAJ-2020-03812 (SP-TMM)

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: The Jacksonville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) has received an application for a Department of the Army permit pursuant to Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. §1344) and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 (33 U.S.C. §403) as described below:

APPLICANT:  St. Johns County Government, Disaster Recovery
                       Attention:  Mr. Damon Douglas
                       500 San Sebastian View
                       St. Augustine, Florida 32084

WATERWAY AND LOCATION: The proposed project site is located along 8.9 miles of shoreline and navigable waters of the Atlantic Ocean between the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) range monuments R-1 at the St. Johns County/Duval County border and southward to R-46.2, 2.5 miles south of Mickler’s Beach, Sections 15, 22, 27, 45, 35, Township 3 South, 29 East and Sections 2, 11, 45, 14, 23, 24, 25, Township 4 South, Range 29 East, in Ponte Vedra Beach, St. Johns County, Florida. The sand borrow area associated with this project is located approximately 3.5 nautical miles off shore from the southern end of the project limits. The borrow area is located in Federal waters on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The U.S. Department of Interior (DOI), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), has the sole regulatory authority over the use and conveyance of OCS sand resources under the OCS Lands Act. The applicant is coordinating with BOEM for authorization of use of federal sand resources from the borrow area.

Directions to the sites are as follows: Traveling on I-95 South, take the Florida 202/J Turner Butler Exit and travel east for 12.5 miles. Exit to Florida A1A South toward Ponte Vedra/St. Augustine and proceed south for 7 miles. Turn left on Ponte Vedra Boulevard at the Mickler Road/A1A intersection. The Mickler’s Landing entrance will be on the right. This site will be the staging area for the project. The project runs 6.4 miles from Mickler’s Landing to the north end of the project at the St. Johns County/Duval County border and 2.5 miles to the south end of the project.

From the south Take I-95 North take Exit 329, which is County Road 210. Drive east toward Ponte Vedra Beach for 4.5 miles. Merge onto Nocatee Parkway East. Travel east for 5.5 miles and take the second exit at the traffic circle toward Mickler Road and continue east. At the intersection of Mickler Road/A1A go straight to continue east. The Mickler’s Landing entrance will be on the right. This site will be the staging area for the project. The project runs 6.4 miles from Mickler’s Landing to the north end of the project at the St. Johns County/Duval County border and 2.5 miles to the south end of the project.

APPROXIMATE CENTRAL COORDINATES:

PROJECT PURPOSE:

Basic: The basic project purpose is shoreline protection.

Overall: The overall project purpose is shoreline stabilization in northern St. Johns County.

EXISTING CONDITIONS:
a. General: The project site is located along the coast of St. Johns County between beach Range monuments R-1 and R-46.2. The St. Johns County beaches were severely impacted by storm surge and waves from Hurricane Matthew in October 2016 and Hurricane Irma in September 2017. In many areas of the project shoreline, the entire primary frontal dune was lost. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has designated a 0.9-mile segment of the project shoreline from R-26 to R-31 as critically eroded. The southern 2.4 miles of the project, from R-34 southward, border Outstanding Florida Waters of the Guana River Marsh Aquatic Preserve, located within the limits of the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR). Upland properties along the Ponte Vedra Beach shoreline and project fill area consist of single-family and condominium residences (some available to the public for rental), hotel and resort space, and Mickler’s Landing beachfront park. Upland uses and activities are principally tourism and residential related.

b. Beaches: The sandy beaches along St. Johns County are typically fronted by a line of dunes with relatively steep faces. Beach sediment is composed primarily of coquina shell hash and fine quartz sand. The existing beach dune vegetation is a predominantly herbaceous plant community consisting of wide-ranging coastal species classified as coastal scrub. The beach dune community consists of sea oats (Uniola paniculate) and grasses that can tolerate sand burial, including panic grass (Panicum amarum) and salt meadow cordgrass (Spartina patens). Camphorweed (Hetrotheca subaxillaris) can be found growing near the sea oats. The upper beach area (seaward of the foredune) is less stable and frequently disturbed by high spring or storm tides, and can be continually re-colonized by annual species such as sea rocket (Cakile lanceolate), crested saltbush (Atriplex cristata), and Dixie sandmat (Chamaesyce bombensis), or by trailing species like railroad vine (Ipomoea pes-caprae), beach morning glory (Ipomea imperati), and the salt tolerant grasses seashore Paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum) and seashore dropseed (Sporobolus virginicus). Seaward of the dune vegetation line, the beach fill area is classified as marine-unconsolidated substrate (sand) from the supratidal to subtidal areas. Within this broad unvegetated zone, where the majority of beach nourishment will occur, there are several different sub-zones. The area is classified as swimming beach Florida Land Use Code Classification System (FLUCCS) 181. Seaward is the nearshore open sand/soft bottom benthic habitat at the shoreline, which is classified as FLUCCS 652. The remainder of the renourishment project footprint falls into the FLUCCS 571, which is the Water Bodies classification for the sandy/muddy seabed of the Atlantic Ocean. The proposed project site encompasses approximately 143 acres of dry, sandy beach; 134 acres of intertidal flat/surf zone; and 65 acres of shallow, subtidal habitat within the area of direct fill placement. There is an additional area consisting of 431 acres of shallow, subtidal habitat that will be gradually affected by beach fill equilibration. There was no coral, hardbottom, or vegetative cover found to occur within the project area.

c. Offshore Borrow Area: The borrow area is 396 acres in size and lies atop a large, roughly shore-parallel sand ridge greater than 1,060 acres in size. The proposed initial excavation area occupies approximately 200 acres within the overall site. The borrow area lies in ambient water depths of 40 feet to 55 feet. Bathymetric contours and side scan imagery indicate that the proposed borrow area is unconsolidated sediment at a relatively uniform depth of 45 feet with a small mound in the center (40 feet) and a slight slope on the western (to 60 feet) and eastern sides (to 52 feet to 55 feet). Unconsolidated sediment in the borrow area generally consist of grey fine sand. There was no coral, hardbottom, or vegetative cover found to occur within the offshore borrow area.

d. Pipeline Corridors: The nearshore pipeline corridors consist of unconsolidated substrate with mostly grey or tan fine sand with a variable coarse shell component. There was no coral, hardbottom, or vegetative cover found to occur within the pipeline corridors.

e. Staging Area: The primary construction staging and beach access area is at Mickler’s Landing. This is a paved parking area and is mostly developed/disturbed upland with sparse dune vegetation along the access pathway through the dune.

PROPOSED WORK: The applicant proposes to dredge up to 2 million-cubic-yards of sand from an offshore borrow area and place the dredged material along 8.9 miles of Atlantic Ocean shoreline between beach range monuments R-1 to R-46.2. The project fill template includes both dune and beach fill berm features. The dune feature would be constructed along the landward limits of the beach fill footprint and seaward of existing bulkheads, revetments, and established dune vegetation. The berm would vary along the shoreline in volume and width depending upon the specific volumetric needs. The project proposes to provide maintenance sand renourishment for the project as needed over a 15-year period, subject to project monitoring. The proposed work would aim to restore and maintain the sandy Atlantic Ocean shoreline and dune system in an area of chronic erosion and severe erosional impacts from Hurricanes Matthew (2016) and Irma (2017).

The applicant proposes the use of material from an offshore borrow area located approximately 3.5 nautical miles offshore of the southern end of the project limits. The excavation of the borrow area would be completed with a trailing suction hopper dredge. Dredged sand would travel through the dragheads into the dredge’s open hopper. The vessel(s) would transport the dredged material from the offshore borrow area to pump out locations positioned approximately 0.5 mile from shore. The material would be pumped from the hopper via a submerged pipeline to the beach along 8 pipeline corridors, once those corridor locations are approved by the Corps, which would be located perpendicular to the shoreline. Pump out buoys and the submerged pipelines would be relocated several times to facilitate pump-out along the entire nourishment project area. Pipelines would be rafted and floated to their next locations. Pump-out buoys may be anchored utilizing multi-ton point anchors and/or clump weights placed within the approved corridors. Support vessels and tugs may support the hopper dredge in other activities, such as crew rotations and pump-out connection. Beach fill would be placed using a trailing suction hopper dredge and direct pump-out to the project shoreline. If the project overlaps sea turtle nesting season, the applicant would utilize relocation trawling to minimize the potential for sea turtle take during hopper dredge operations. Construction is expected to begin in the fall of 2021 and would last approximately 3 to 6 months, with maintenance sand renourishment in approximately 10 years.

AVOIDANCE AND MINIMIZATION INFORMATION: The applicant has provided the following information in support of efforts to avoid impacts to the aquatic environment:

The applicant would comply with the typical minimization measures required by Florida Department of Environmental Protection for beach restoration projects, and as recommended by the 2020 South Atlantic Regional Biological Opinion for Dredging and Material Placement Activities in the Southeast United States (SARBO), Statewide Programmatic Biological Opinion (SPBO), and the Piping Plover Programmatic Biological Opinion (P3BO).

CULTURAL RESOURCES:
The Corps is aware of historic properties within or in proximity of the permit area. The Corps will initiate consultation with the State Historic Preservation Office and those federally recognized tribes with concerns in Florida and the Permit Area, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation as applicable pursuant to 33 CFR 325, Appendix C and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, by separate letter.

ENDANGERED SPECIES:
The Corps has determined the proposed project may have varying effects on the following species or their designated critical habitat. The Corps will request U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) concurrence with these determinations under informal consultation related to the SPBO and P3BO reviews, pursuant to Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act. The Corps has reviewed the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) SARBO 2020 to ensure the proposed work meets the Project Design Criteria for each species and meets the criteria to be utilized to evaluate a new borrow area and a new beach nourishment site; therefore, no additional consultation is required.