Dredging Along the Potomac and Occoquan Rivers

Mr. Dick Krauss

Occoquan Harbor Marina Inc.

Occoquan, VA.

                              December 20, 1999

Dear Mr. Krauss,

This letter responds to your telephone request for information about the Potomac River Federal Navigation Maintenance Dredging Project.  This information is being provided as part of the Potomac American Heritage River (AHR) initiative under the provisions of the President’s Executive Order No. 13061.

During our telephone conversation on December 10 you asked me if the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had reviewed the above-mentioned project.  I contacted Tom Slenkamp of EPA’s Region 3 office; Joe DiBello of the NPS Mid-Atlantic Region; John Parsons of the National Capital Region Office; Rob Campellone of the NPS Headquarters Office; and Wes Coleman the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) Liaison for the Potomac AHR.  According to EPA, NPS and the COE neither the Environmental Protection Agency nor the National Park Service have officially commented on this maintenance dredging project.

From my review it does not appear that the COE’s environmental assessment has addressed the 

provisions of the President’s Executive Order No. 11514.  At that time the President in his Message on the Environment required that:

“Each Federal agency shall, as part of its normal planning and environmental review process, take care to avoid or mitigate adverse effects on rivers identified in the Nationwide Rivers Inventory prepared by the heritage Conservation and Recreation Service in the Department of the Interior.  Agencies shall, as part of their normal environmental review process, consult with the Heritage Conservation and recreation Service prior to taking actions which could effectively foreclose wild, scenic, or recreational river status on the Inventory”.  The duties of the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service were officially transferred to the National Park Service in 1981.

Since the Potomac River, from the Nice Memorial Bridge to Sandy Point--a distance of approximately 24 miles, is listed on the Nationwide Rivers Inventory it should have been reviewed by the COE and NPS under the provisions of this Executive Order.  Attached is a copy of the: 1) August 10, 1980 Memorandum for Heads of Agencies on Interagency Consultation to Avoid or Mitigate Adverse Effects on Rivers in the Nationwide Rivers Inventory and; 2) the August 15, 1980 PEP-Environmental Statement Memorandum NO. ES80-2 from the Department of Interior.  

The guidance indicates that dredging is one of the types of activities which would generally require consultation with NPS because of the potential for adverse effects on the values the rivers were recognized for.

There is no evidence to suggest that the Potomac was evaluated under the provisions of this Executive Order, nor does my research indicate that there was any interagency consultation between NPS and COE to avoid or mitigate the adverse effects of this project on this portion of the River.

Please contact me if you have additional questions.

Thanks for your interest in the Potomac American Heritage River.

Sincerely,

J. Glenn Eugster, River Navigator

Potomac American Heritage River