The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have eliminated the release of water from the Rodman Dam from its list of possible mitigation measures for the Jacksonville Harbor Channel Deepening study, the corps announced Thursday at the cruise ship terminal at Dames Point.
Jason Harrah, harbor deepening project manager for the corps, told about 150 people at a public meeting on the draft harbor deepening report that using the Rodman Dam as a mitigation measure would need its own study.
“The Rodman Dam is a complex issue that requires extensive environmental and engineering studies that are well beyond the scope of this project,” said Harrah.
St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman was disappointed that the corps decided not to look into the mitigation option.
“That was one of the only real mitigation measures on the table,” said Rinaman.
The corps has designated about $80 million of the proposed $733 total cost of the project for mitigation. Mitigation measures discussed in the report included purchase of land for conservation, the reduction of nutrients introduced into the St. Johns River and funding a plan to monitor the river.
Harrah also talked about the removal of the dredge material for the project. The corps has identified the Jacksonville Ocean Dredged Material Disposal Site to receive the dredge material from the proposed project.
The site is a one-square-mile area about 5 miles southeast of the mouth of the St. Johns River. The corps is in the review process with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to open for the deepening project a four-square-mile area about a mile south of the existing site.
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