PUBLIC NOTICE
Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)
Wastewater Discharge Authorization Program/§401 Certification
555 Cordova Street, Anchorage AK 99501-2617
Phone: 907-269-6285 | Email: DEC-401Cert@alaska.gov

Notice of Application for State Water Quality Certification

Public Notice (PN) Date: July 8, 2025                         PN Reference Number: POA-2024-00584 v1.0
PN Expiration Date: August 7, 2025                                                         Waterway: Tanana River

Any applicant for a federal license or permit to conduct an activity that might result in a discharge into waters of the United States, in accordance with Section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA), must also apply for and obtain certification from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation that the discharge will comply with the CWA and the Alaska Water Quality Standards (18 AAC 70). The scope of certification is limited to the water quality-related impacts of the activity subject to the Federal license or permit (40 CFR 121.3, 18 AAC 15.180).

Notice is hereby given that a request for a CWA §401 Water Quality Certification of a Department of the Army Permit application, Corps of Engineers’ PN Reference Number indicated above, has been received[1] for the discharge of dredged and/or fill materials into waters of the United States (WOTUS), including wetlands, as described below, and shown on the project figures/drawings. The public notice and related project figures/drawings are accessible from the DEC website at https://dec.alaska.gov/water/wastewater/.

To comment on the project or request a public hearing with respect to water quality, submit comments via (preferred method) the DEC website https://dec.alaska.gov/commish/public-notices/ or email to the DEC email address: DEC-401Cert@alaska.gov with the subject line referencing Public Notice Reference Number: POA-2024-00584 v1.0 or on or before the public notice expiration date listed above.

Applicant: Fort Wainwright Directorate of Public Works, Tim Sponseller, 1046 Marks Road, Fort Wainwright, AK 99703, (907) 361-7287; tim.a.sponseller.civ@army.mil

Agent: Fort Wainwright Directorate of Public Works, Dan Rees, 1046 Marks Road Fort Wainwright, AK 99703; (907) 361-9318; daniel.c.rees.civ@army.mil.

Project Name: Tanana Flats Training Area All-Season Road

Dates of the proposed activity are planned to begin and end: 08/01/2025 to 07/31/2030

Location: The proposed activity is located within Section Various, T. 4, 5, 6S, R. 1, 2, 3E & 1W, Fairbanks Meridian, in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska.  Project Site (Latitude, Longitude): 64.541655, -147.09216.

Purpose: The applicant’s stated purpose is to develop year-round access to the Tanana Flats Training Area (TFTA) and the Blair Lakes Range Complex (BLRC) via a 24.2-mile double-lane gravel road. Currently, the Tanana River Bridge near Salcha provides year-round access to the TFTA for aircraft and low ground pressure vehicles, and seasonal access for higher ground pressure vehicles via an unimproved winter trail extending from the bridge to the TFTA and BLRC. A gravel road designed and constructed to provide reliable, year-round access would enable the Army to better utilize the TFTA and the BLRC and thus more readily support the Army’s Arctic Strategy.

Construction of this project is expected to begin August 1, 2025, and end July 31, 2030.

Description of Proposed Work: The Army (US Army Garrison Alaska and the 11th Airborne Division), is seeking to develop year-round access to the Tanana Flats Training Area (TFTA) and the Blair Lakes Range Complex (BLRC) via a 24.2-mile double lane gravel road. Construction of the road will involve the discharge of clean gravel fill into 35.2 acres (30,905 linear feet) of wetlands and waters. The proposed gravel road will follow the alignment for a winter ice road that is currently used to access TFTA and BLRC during the winter. The road will be constructed over two seasons beginning in July 2025. During the first season, construction would begin where the gravel road from the Alaska Railroad Bridge over the Tanana River ends, approximately one mile from the southwest bank of the Tanana River, and progress to Dry Creek. The second season, construction would begin at Dry Creek and end at an existing gravel access road to BLRC. While most of the construction would occur during the summer, some winter construction activities would occur, including the development of material sites, spreading gravel, and setting the bridge if necessary. 

Typical road construction equipment will be used, such as dump trucks, front-end loaders, bulldozers, drag lines, graders, off-road trucks, and potentially a crane to set the bridge. Construction vehicles will be left on site overnight, and crews will access the site via personal vehicles. Approximately 480,000 cubic yards of gravel will be mined from material sites along the alignment.

Earth moving or cutting in wetlands will not take place during the construction of the road. Fabric will be rolled across the alignment, and the road will be built on top of the existing ground. The fabric on top of the wetlands will serve to protect the permafrost, as the wetlands will not be excavated. The base of the road will be 50 feet wide, and the surface will be 36 feet wide with 4:1 side slopes. 

The route will cross five stream channels: Dry Creek, two channels of Clear Creek, Beaver Pond Creek, and Rigney Creek. A low water crossing (900 ft. long x 44 ft. wide) will be constructed across Dry Creek.  The creek will be excavated 3 feet deep with a bulldozer during a dry period when there is no water. Excavated material will be stored in uplands adjacent to the Creek. The base of the excavated area will be filled with 6-8-inch rock, surfaced with gravel, and armored with rip rap on the upstream side.  Rip rap will also be used to armor the road on the upstream side within 150 feet on both sides of Dry Creek to protect the road during high water events.  

Full-span bridges will be constructed across the two channels of Clear Creek and Rigney Creek, with concrete abutments placed in uplands outside of the 2-year floodplain.  Bridges will be either single lane or double lane.

Four 60-inch culverts will be used to cross Beaver Pond Creek. These culverts are intentionally oversized to accommodate overflow, which has been noted in the vicinity of the creek crossing. Additionally, thirty 18-inch culverts will be placed in seasonal drainages and wetlands to maintain hydrological connectivity and to prevent ponding immediately adjacent to the road.

Up to nine material sites, all in uplands, between 20 and 50 acres, will be established along the route as a source of gravel for the road. Gravel will be extracted with an excavator to a maximum depth of 60 feet.

Applicant Proposed Mitigation: The applicant proposes the following mitigation measures to avoid, minimize, and compensate for impacts to waters of the United States from activities involving discharges of dredged or fill material.

1. Avoidance: The proposed TFTA all-season road corridor connects the railroad bridge and the BLRC, following an existing winter trail. The Tanana Flats are comprised of large wetland complexes interspersed with uplands and therefore complete avoidance of wetland impacts is not feasible.Prior to establishing the winter trail, wetland surveys and mapping were used to route the trail through the fewest wetlands possible. The route for the winter trail was laid out to avoid severely wet areas for the sake of ease of travel and to avoid traveling through unstable, saturated ground. Additionally, the following four routes were either rerouted to avoid waters, wetlands, and areas most susceptible to degradation of permafrost or abandoned before cutting in the winter trail.Wetland surveys were done south of the proposed route for a southern route that would pass through the Blair Lakes Hills and on to the BLRC. However, it is less direct than the current proposed route and has a higher concentration of wetlands.A 0.4-mile stretch was rerouted to the south to avoid several thermokarst features. A 3-mile section was rerouted to the south to avoid 8.2 acres of scrub-shrub and emergent wetland. The re-route will impact 1.3 acres of scrub-shrub wetland, resulting in a difference of 6.9 acres.A 1-mile section was rerouted to the south, where the proposed road intersects Beaver Pond Creek, multiple crossings of the creek, and areas where the creek has occupied the trail. All nine borrow pits that will supply gravel for the construction of the road are located entirely in uplands to avoid wetland impacts. Additionally, a borrow pit that was sited in the channel of Dry Creek was considered, but because of concerns about trapping fish during periods of low water, alternative gravel pits were located on either side of the creek.

   In addition to the above avoidance actions, the project will involve building bridges over two channels of Clear Creek and Rigney Creek. Clear Creek is a documented anadromous stream. Chinook salmon spawning and rearing habitat and Chum Salmon rearing habitat have been documented in Clear Creek in the vicinity of the stream crossing.  Resident fish such as northern pike and slimy sculpin have also been documented near the proposed crossings of Clear Creek and Rigney Creek.  These bridges will be full-span without in-river piers and will have abutments placed in uplands and set back from the river bank, which will avoid negative impacts to the stream by: Avoiding in-stream construction associated with culverts or low water crossings, Eliminating travel with vehicles and heavy equipment through the stream and eliminating bank and bed erosion from the annual construction of ice bridges (current practice).

   Despite intersecting the Blair Lakes Archaeological District and its proximity to 37 known archaeological sites, the proposed road was routed to avoid any impacts to known archaeological sites.

2. Minimization: The following actions will be taken to minimize negative impacts on wetlands and waters.

   Following recommendations from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Habitat Division, fish-friendly culverts will be installed at Beaver Pond Creek. The lower 20-30% of the culvert will be buried in the stream, which will allow for passage by fish and other organisms even when water levels are low and provide natural stream bed substrate within the culvert.

   • 18-inch culverts (corrugated metal pipe) will be installed in 30 seasonally flooded channels to maintain hydrologic connectivity of seasonally flooded wetlands and prevent ponding which could accelerate thermal degradation adjacent to the road.
   • The proposed trail upgrade minimizes disturbance to wetlands and waters and surrounding uplands by following current roads and an existing trail as much as possible.
   • Vegetation clearing will take place outside of the nesting bird window between May 1 and July 15 to minimize disturbances to nesting migratory birds.
   • Upon completion, side slopes will be seeded with certified weed-free native grasses to prevent erosion and discharge of sediments into adjacent wetlands and waters.
   • Equipment will be cleaned and inspected before entering the area to ensure invasive weed species are not introduced during construction, and annual surveys will be done along the road for two years after construction is complete. Gravel extraction sites will be located so they do not become connected to any nearby streams to avoid trapping fish.
3. Mitigation: Responsible mitigation will be conducted to compensate for the proposed unavoidable adverse impacts. Although the proposed construction would have relatively small adverse impacts on aquatic resource function due to the proposed avoidance and minimization and the relatively light development that has occurred in the subwatersheds traversed by the project, the direct, indirect and cumulative impacts are nonetheless substantial and must be offset to comply with the Section 404(b)(1) Guidelines.

After gravel extraction for the construction of the TFTA road is complete, at least two of the nine borrow pits would be recontoured to create open water/emergent wetland complexes. The goal is to create at least 70.4 acres of wetland and water habitat, which is double the area of wetlands and other waters that would be filled by the proposed construction. It is anticipated that restoration of two of the borrow pits adjacent to the road would be sufficient to reach this goal, but additional borrow pits would be restored if necessary. A detailed plan of wetland establishment, monitoring, and management at the material sites must be submitted to the Alaska District before permit issuance.

After reviewing the application, the Department will evaluate whether the activity will comply with applicable water quality requirements (any limitation, standard, or other requirement under sections 301, 302, 306, and 307 of the CWA, any Federal and state laws or regulations implementing those sections, and any other water quality-related requirement of state law). The Department may certify (or certify with conditions) with reasonable assurance the activity and any discharge that might result will comply with water quality requirements. The Department also may deny or waive certification.

The permit application and associated documents are available for review. To inquire about or request copies of the documents, contact dec-401cert@alaska.gov or call 907-269-6285.

Disability Reasonable Accommodation Notice

The State of Alaska, Department of Environmental Conservation, complies with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. If you are a person with a disability who may need special accommodation in order to participate in this public process, please contact ADA Coordinator Kristin Mabry, kristin.mabry@alaska.gov, 1-907-334-0884; or TDD Relay Service 1-800-770-8973/TTY or dial 711 at least 3 days prior to the expiration/closure date of this public notice to ensure that any necessary accommodations can be provided.

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