Notice of Application for State Water Quality Certification

Public Notice (PN) Date: September 24, 2026        PN Reference Number: ER-PN-26-02 v1.0
PN Expiration Date: October 26, 2026                   Waterway: Kachemak Bay

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) 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: ER-PN-26-02 v1.0 or on or before the public notice expiration date listed above.

Applicant: USACE - Alaska District - Civil Works, Kayla Campbell, USACE Alaska District, Civil Works, ATTN: Kayla Campbell, P.O. Box 6898, JBER, AK 995061518, (907) 753-2757; kayla.n.campbell@usace.army.mil

Project Name: Homer Navigation Improvements

Dates of the proposed activity are planned to begin and end: 03/01/2030 to 11/30/2034

Location: The proposed activity is located within Section 36, T. 6 South, R. 12 West, Seward Meridian, in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska. 18107001. Project Site (Latitude, Longitude): 59.610010, -151.42388.

Purpose: The purpose of the project is to construct a new harbor facility in Homer, Alaska, to provide safe and efficient moorage for a fleet of 304 commercial and small vessels. This expansion is necessary to address severe capacity constraints at the existing Homer Port, where limited moorage forces hazardous vessel rafting up to five boats deep. This severe overcrowding creates critical fire and injury risks, narrows established navigation lanes, and causes extensive operational delays for the regional maritime industry.

Description of Proposed Work: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has developed an alternative (herein, the project) to address navigation improvement needs at Homer, Alaska. This project involves the construction of a new harbor adjacent to the eastern side of the Homer Spit, near the existing Homer Harbor. The new facility is specifically designed to accommodate a fleet of 304 vessels, composed of transient and waitlisted small vessels. As part of this effort, USACE is responsible for the construction and permitting of the project's general navigation features, namely the rubble-mound breakwater and the dredged prism.

The project is currently at the 30-35% design phase, and USACE has minimized the breakwater and dredged prism footprints to the maximum extent practicable. The current design requires an approximately 4,500-foot breakwater. Baseline estimates indicate a need for roughly 611,600 cubic yards (CY) of total rock, distributed as ~123,100 CY of Armor Rock, ~66,500 CY of B Rock, ~310,800 CY of C Rock, and ~111,200 CY of quarry spall. Quarry spall is fill that would settle up to the mudline to address settlement within fine-grained sediment at the project site. The other rock would sit atop the quarry spall to construct the breakwater as designed.

To account for uncertainty surrounding the settlement of heavy rock onto soft sediment, USACE is applying a 50% buffer to these baseline rock quantities for the permit application. With this 50% buffer applied, the permitted quantities will total approximately 750,600 CY of rock. This adjusted total breaks down to roughly 184,650 CY of Armor Rock, 99,750 CY of B Rock, and 466,200 CY of C Rock.

USACE has determined that a 68-acre dredge prism is necessary to create the 37-acre mooring basin required to support the target fleet. This comprehensive dredged prism encompasses the new harbor's entrance channel (-26 feet MLLW), fairway (-24 to -15 feet MLLW), and mooring basin (-24 to -15 feet MLLW). An over dredge depth of 2 feet would be applied to the project. While baseline design estimates require dredging approximately 1,311,800 CY of material, USACE is seeking to permit a buffered amount of 1,500,000 CY. This approximately 15% volume buffer is for maintaining flexibility to accommodate future design adjustments and natural environmental variations.

All new work dredged material will be discharged at the designated approximately 28-acre Deep-Water Disposal Site (DWDS). This location was strategically selected in deep water in the area near the Homer Spit that is excluded from the Kachemak Bay Critical Habitat Area to prevent resuspended sediment from migrating back into the existing or new harbors. While the discharge is currently characterized strictly as disposal, USACE is actively assessing whether strategic placement at the DWDS can yield environmental benefits that would justify recategorizing the effort as beneficial use.

Further information about the project can be found on the USACE website under the “Civil Works” section at: https://www.poa.usace.army.mil/Library/Reports-and-Studies/

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: Project impacts were avoided to the maximum extent practicable through strategic, data-driven design:

   - ADF&G Coordination and Insignificant Overlap with KBCHA: USACE would active coordinate with ADF&G to inform the final location and size of the in-water dredged material disposal site. Currently, the proposed project and proposed dredged material disposal site successfully avoids broad encroachment into the state-managed conservation area, limiting the unavoidable structural overlap to a negligible ~0.0002%.

   - Habitat Avoidance: The project alignment avoids direct impacts to critical, high-density eelgrass beds. Modeling confirmed that the microscopic area of suitable eelgrass habitat that could not be avoided represents an ecologically insignificant loss relative to the broader ecosystem.

2. Minimization: Where impacts were unavoidable, they were minimized through specific engineering and operational controls:

   - Footprint & Volume Reduction: The mooring basin was engineered with a depth gradient, and breakwater footprints were minimized. These design choices significantly reduce the total volume of dredged material and rock fill required.

   - Geotechnical Stabilization: To minimize structural settlement and secondary sediment displacement on the area's soft, fine-grained soils, the breakwater design incorporates a quarry spall base layer.

   - Vessel Restrictions: To prevent localized prop wash turbidity and benthic scouring, shallow-water vessel operations and vessel grounding outside designated construction zones will be prohibited.

3. Mitigation: A comprehensive suite of mitigation measures will be implemented to control the effects of the discharge:

- Turbidity Control: Turbidity will be actively managed through the mandatory deployment of physical controls (detailed in the monitoring section) during all new work dredging.

- Operational Pollution Control: To mitigate pollution risks, the contractor must implement a comprehensive Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plan and an Environmental Protection Plan (EPP) with strict protocols for invasive species prevention.

- Wildlife Protection: Wildlife will be protected through the enforcement of any required seasonal work windows from regulators and the use of qualified Protected Species Observers (PSOs) to monitor shutdown zones.

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 to participate in this public process, don't hesitate to get in touch with 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 before the expiration/closure date of this public notice to ensure that any necessary accommodations can be provided.

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