USA: Corps Seeks Public Input on Proposed Cora Island Project

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District, will hold an open house public meeting for the proposed project at Cora Island on Wednesday, June 4, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Audubon Center at Riverlands, 301 Riverlands Way, West Alton, Missouri.

The Corps will provide a presentation on the background and proposed project. They will also solicit questions and input from the public for use in completion of the final Project Implementation Report with Integrated Environmental Assessment.

The proposed project at Cora Island is part of the Missouri River Recovery Program. In partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who manages Cora Island as part of the Big Muddy Fish and Wildlife Refuge, the Corps proposes construction of three side-channel chutes on the project site which would result in approximately 42 acres of shallow water habitat at completion of construction and ultimately provide approximately 111 acres of shallow water habitat through natural processes.

Cora Island, the eastern most unit of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, is located just three miles upstream on the Missouri River from the confluence at the Mississippi River near West Alton.

In addition to the public meeting, the Corps is soliciting public comments on the project during a 30-day review period that opened May 16, 2014, and will close on June 15, 2014.

[mappress]

Press Release, May 20, 2014