The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will release for public review and comment the Draft Dredged Material Management Plan and Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Long Island Sound on Monday.

The documents will be available for review on the Corps website.

Also, the corps is extending the public comment period through Oct 5. The Corps will host public hearings Aug. 24 – 27 in Connecticut and New York to provide an overview of the reports and receive public comments.

The DMMP was requested by the governors of Connecticut and New York in 2005. The need for a management plan also was identified by the Environmental Protection Agency's June 2005 rule that designated two of the Sound's historic open-water placement sites, the Central Long Island Sound site and the Western Long Island Sound site, for continued use. The EPA's rule required preparation of the document to examine alternative placement practices, with the goal of reducing or eliminating open-water placement of dredged material in the waters of Long Island Sound wherever practicable.

The management plan examines the need for dredging, the history of dredging and dredged material placement, and current beneficial use practices. It identifies and assesses alternatives for future dredged material placement and beneficial use, identifies the likely Federal Base Plans (least cost environmentally acceptable plan) for future Federal dredging activities, and recommends further action to be taken by individual projects as they come up for their next maintenance cycle, or in feasibility studies for proposed project improvements. The DMMP identifies practicable potential cost-effective and environmentally acceptable placement alternatives to meet the dredging needs of Long Island Sound's ports and harbors.

The public hearings in Connecticut will take place Aug. 26 at the University of Connecticut-Stamford at 1 University Place in Stamford; and on Aug. 27 at the Holiday Inn-New London, 35 Governor Winthrop Blvd. in New London.

Registration for the hearings will begin at 5:30 p.m. and the hearings will start at 6 p.m.

The New York hearings will take place Aug. 24 in Port Jefferson and Aug. 25 in Uniondale.

Public comments should be sent by Oct. 5 to: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District, (ATTN: LIS DMMP/PEIS Program Manager Meghan Quinn), 696 Virginia Road, Concord, MA 01742-2751; or by email to: meghan.c.quinn@usace.army.mil.