The City of Homer Harbor Expansion

Comment on the Harbor Expansion Draft Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Assessment

The DIFREA is available for review at: http://www.poa.usace.army.mil/Library/Reports-and-Studies/. (To access the report on this site, expand the Civil Works tab under “Documents Available for Public Review.”)

To access the report on this site, expand the Civil Works tab under “Documents Available for Public Review.” The public and agency comment period ends June 22, 2026. Comments must be submitted to the Corps Public Affairs Office through email at: public.affairs3@usace.army.mil.

The Homer Harbor Expansion Must Analyze Impacts of Climate Change

As part of the process for potential environmental and social impacts and costs and benefits of expanding the Homer the Kachemak Bay Watershed Collaborative proposes the “Climate Change Impacts” (CCI) Alternative for the Corps to consider in the range of alternatives. This alternative includes the fact that the increasing impacts of climate change on the marine and freshwater ecosystems in the Kachemak Bay Watershed are unavoidable and therefore, any impacts to such ecosystem from expansion, change of location or other alterations of the Harbor must be mitigated so that they do not exacerbate the impacts of climate change.

Potential impacts of large-scale industry related to the harbor expansion on the fresh water and marine ecosystems health of Kachemak Bay and greater Homer including:

1. Invasive species from ballast water;

2. Water, air and noise pollution and carbon emissions from barges, tankers, cruise ships and new industries;

3. Impacts to water quality from boat work on the spit;

4. Potential filling of wetlands to accommodate storage of smaller vessels or to dispose of dredge spoils;

5. Increased carbon emissions resulting in higher fresh and marine water temperatures which are harmful to fish and marine mammals.

In order to mitigate the above and other impacts, the CCI Alternative should include the following actions:

1) The Adaptation actions included in the City of Homer's 2009 Climate Action Plan including:

○ Developing management plans specific to Port & Harbor facilities on the Homer Spit (construction, maintenance, dredging, etc.) that take into account climate change impacts;

○ Taking climate change into consideration in all long-range planning efforts (e.g., transportation, land use, Homer Spit, emergency management, economic development);

○ To date, efforts to reduce emissions from Harbor and Port operations have been the conversion to LED lights and to gas heating.

2) Update the City of Homer Adaption Action Plan as part of development of the KBWC Watershed Resiliency Plan;

3) Analyze how the City might lead in the “greening” of American ports by upgrading, modernizing, and decarbonizing its port infrastructure and operations, as outlined in the White House’s Ocean Climate Action Plan;

4) The scope of the environmental impacts of the expansion and how it could exacerbate climate impacts must address both the marine and freshwater ecosystems of the entire watershed;

5) Analyze how the expansion will be consistent with President Bidens “America the Beautiful Initiative to offset climate impacts on fish and wildlife habitat by preserving 30 percent of the Nation’s federal lands by 2030;

6) Analyze How the expansion will be consistent with the 6th IPCC Report which states if global warming is to be kept below 1.5 degrees C., how any new emissions of greenhouse gasses must be offset by equivalent removals from the atmosphere and achieving carbon neutrality before 2050;

7) Analyze how the Expansion will be consistent with President Biden’s multiple directives to apply principals of environmental justice, use of traditional knowledge and engage in government-to-government consultation related to Alaska Native tribal communities and governments.

The Homer Harbor Expansion Ecosystem Working Group

The City of Homer is in the process of analyzing several different alternatives of expanding the Homer Harbor and assessing the environmental impacts of doing so. As part of the Homer Harbor Expansion the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) established the Ecosystem Working Group (ESWG) to discuss the environmental impacts and analysis of the expansion Project and which KBWC is a member of.

The predominate focus of the ESWG is to discuss USACE environmental activities and potential monitoring, survey, mitigation etc and the type of project features, activities and operations the Study alternatives are anticipated to include; i.e., harbor infrastructure.

A tentatively selected plan will be decided by the Study project delivery team (USACE, City of Homer, and HDR). The TSP will focus on the content of the Draft Study Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Analysis, which is planned for release in the fall of 2025, when the public and other agencies have an opportunity to review the draft report and provide comment to USACE before the report is finalized.

The ESWG also focuses on the development process for a study ecological model and environmental/cultural fieldwork that were originally conceptualized during a workshop in April 2024. The goal for the ecological model which will eventually be certified, is to incorporate the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science’s Kelp Model, HDR’s Sediment study and Water Current Circulation Model as inputs. The ecological model

The ESWG also focuses on environmental/cultural fieldwork, focusing on areas within the direct Study footprint including providing input for identifying potential species observer on footage from underwater camera surveys. Fieldwork was.

ESWG members have also discussed providing potential recommendations for environmental studies, monitoring, mitigations, etc, that could be implemented to inform the environmental impacts during the design through post-construction of a construction alternative. The recommendations included: type of recommendation (mitigation, study, survey, monitoring, etc); general timeframe it would be implemented (i.e., during design, post-construction); frequency or timing considerations of implementation (if applicable); the recommendation; and what the recommendation will address/its purpose. These recommendations will be reviewed and considered for the potential and practicality of implementation under Study alternatives.

KBWC will continue to participate in the ESWG to determine when the public will be able to review and comment on the Study Draft Study Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Analysis.