LT Bryan Kendris Comment Letter

22 February 2010 Memorandum From: LT A. Bryan Kendris, USN To: Mrs. Jessica Winkler, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Subj: Comment on Proposed Rule Concerning Ocean Dumping in Siuslaw River, Oregon Ref: (a) Document ID EPA-R10-OW-2010-0086-0001 Ma’am, 1. My name is Bryan Kendris and I am a student at American Military University studying for my Masters in Business Administration. After reading reference (a) I would like to provide you with a comment for consideration. 2. I am for your proposed regulation but after reading it I am left with several questions. a. How often does the River need to be dredged? b. Will this establish the North and South Sites as permanent dredged material disposal sites for the time being? c. When would you expect to have to submit another request to expand the dumping site? d. Is the Siuslaw River the only river material that can be dumped into the site or can nearby rivers dump dredged material into the site? e. Will there be a published Notice to Mariners for the revised sites so vessels do not interfere with operations? f. Is there anything you can do to level the mounds under the water before settling more material on top? g. What will the final depth of the sediment be on the ocean floor? h. What do you do with material that is dredged but discovered to be waste? 3. One thought that I had after reading your proposal was to extend the sites so they ran parallel to the coast. This could be beneficial if you would like to minimize the effects of beach erosion. Waves that reach land would be reduced in size and height if they experienced a manmade speed bump (sandbar) under the water. 4. Also, has the community been asked if they could use the dirt for land projects? For example, the material can be used to restore an eroded beach or used to create an extension on land. The material will be mostly composed of sand but that can be used as a base and then soil can be placed on top. 5. Finally, do you plan to dredge and dump in relation to the daily high/low tide and flood/ebb current? My thought here is that dredging operations at low tide would make retrieving material easier since there is relatively less water. Also, if there is a flood tide then any suspended material may be brought back to land quicker since that will be the direction of water flow. 6. I think your plan has a lot of potential and I am happy to have read it for my project. At first I expected this to be relatively uncomplicated proposal but was surprised by the amount of concurrent events that had to be researched for this topic. This is a big endeavor and I wish you the best of luck. Thank you for your time. Very respectfully, /s/ A. Bryan Kendris LT, USN