NAME OF APPLICANT: America Homeland, LLC, c/o D & S Environmental Services, Inc., Post Office Box 510, French Settlement, LA 70733.
LOCATION OF WORK: Adjacent to and south of Louisiana Highway 929, approximately 0.25 mile east of its intersection with Louisiana Highway 930, near Prairiville, Louisiana, in Ascension Parish; within the Lake Pontchartrian Basin, in the Amite River hydrologic unit (HUC 08070202).
CHARACTER OF WORK: The applicant has requested authorization to clear, grade, excavate, and fill an area to construct a 48-lot residential subdivision with pertinent houses, driveways, green space, recreational park, detention pond, discharge outfalls, sanitary sewer lift station, and ingress/egress access. Approximately 3,347.02 cubic yards of earthen material, 1,676.39 cubic yards of soil cement base, 1369.73 cubic yards of concrete, and 104.96 cubic yards of asphalt will be placed on-site. Approximately 6.2 acres of potentially jurisdictional wetlands will be impacted by this project. A jurisdictional determination for the proposed subdivision site is currently pending in the Corps’ Surveillance and Enforcement Section. If additional jurisdictional impacts are determined as a result of this determination, an addendum to this Public Notice shall be required.
According to the applicant, their goal was to design the subdivision to avoid all impacts to jurisdictional wetlands and waters. The applicant stated that avoidance of wetlands was not possible and would deem the project impractical because of the distribution of wetland/water resources, property dimensions, lack of expendable property, engineering constraints, and parish requirements. To minimize impacts to adjacent properties, the applicant will implement best management practices (BMP’s), including silt fencing, hay bales, seeding, sediment check dams, etc., during and after construction to prevent erosion and degradation of water quality on-site and on-adjacent properties. After construction is complete, earthen material will be graded and seeded with the appropriate perennial mixture to help prevent erosion, turbidity, and degradation of water quality. To compensate for unavoidable wetland impacts, the applicant proposes to purchase wetland credits from a Corps approved mitigation bank located in the watershed.