USA: Maritime Development Center, LLC Files Application for Coastal Wetlands Permit

Maritime Development Center, LLC has filed an application with the Department of Marine Resources requesting permission to conduct regulated activities under the provision of the Coastal Wetlands Protection Law Act, Title 49, Chapter 27, Mississippi Code of 1972.

The applicant is proposing to expand their existing facilities for the purpose of constructing a marine launch suitable for large ocean going vessels at the Maritime Development Center located along the northern shoreline of Gulfport Lake in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Proposed impacts include nine-hundred-fifty-three (953) linear feet of bulkhead installed around the perimeter of the project area waterward of the current mean-high-tide line and approximately 52,300 square feet of filled waterbottoms, of which 6,950 are Coastal Wetlands (Public Trust Tidelands). Upon completion of the bulkhead, the enclosed area landward of the structure will be backfilled with 31,000 cubic yards of fill material. The applicant has requested two variances to the Guidelines for Regulated Activities in the Mississippi Coastal program.

The first is from Chapter 8, Section 2, Part III.D.3, which reads: “Vertical face structures shall be aligned no further waterward than mean high tide, and constructed so that reflective wave energy does not destroy adjacent wetlands habitat.” The second is from Chapter 8, Section 2, Part III.O.1, which reads: “Permanent filling of coastal wetlands because of potential adverse and cumulative environmental impacts is discouraged.”

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Press Release, August 5, 2013