NEWS RELEASE
ST. PAUL DISTRICT
March 12, 2018
MVP-PA-2018-008
Patrick Loch: 651-290-5679, 651-315-3887, [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Patrick Moes: 651-290-5202, 651-366-7539, [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Corps seeks comments on habitat restoration project on Pigs Eye Lake
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, released a draft Environmental Assessment, or EA, for a project to restore backwater habitat on Pigs Eye Lake, near St. Paul, March 12.
The proposed project, planned in collaboration with Ramsey County, would enhance and restore backwater habitat by creating island and wetland features on Pigs Eye Lake using material dredged from the Mississippi River by the Corps of Engineers during routine maintenance of the navigation channel. A complex of seven islands would be constructed, benefitting the area by serving as wind barriers to reduce shoreline erosion, improving habitat for migratory birds, stabilizing the lake bottom and providing a beneficial use for more than 400,000 cubic yards of dredged material.
The proposed fill action would involve placing clean sand, topsoil and rock into Pigs Eye Lake with a total footprint of approximately 40 acres. Work is scheduled to begin in 2019 and anticipated to take approximately two years for construction and planting, with additional monitoring and management to follow. The project would have temporary, minor adverse impacts on noise levels, aesthetic values and recreational opportunities, but would ultimately benefit habitat, habitat diversity, recreation, commercial navigation and surface water quality.
A draft EA that describes the project and the environmental impacts in detail is available to the public and can be viewed and downloaded from the St. Paul District website at: http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Home/PublicNotices.aspx <http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Home/PublicNotices.aspx> .
Questions on the project or comments on the EA can be directed to Aaron Mcfarlane, project biologist, at
651-290-5660 or [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> . Please address all formal written correspondence on this project to the St. Paul District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ATTN: Regional Planning and Environment Division North, 180 5th St. E., Suite 700, St. Paul, MN 55101.
The nearly 600 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, employees working at more than 40 sites in five upper-Midwest states serve the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood damage reduction, water and wetlands regulation, recreation sites and disaster response. Through the St. Paul District Fiscal Year 2016 $78 million budget, nearly 1,250 non-Corps jobs were added to the regional economy as well as $120 million to the national economy. For more information, see http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil <http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil> .
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