Maintenance Dredging of Port Royal Harbor, Beaufort County, South Carolina.

Maintenance of a channel 27 feet deep and 500 feet wide across the ocean bar and in Port Royal Sound; 24 feet deep and 300 feet wide in Beaufort River and Battery Creek; and a turning basin 27 feet deep by 600 feet wide opposite the State Ports Authority wharf. Short-term increase in turbidity and sedimentation; smothering of plant and animal communities in disposal areas; short-term reduction of benthic organism population in path of cutterhead and in offshore disposal area; possible increase in local mosquito population; minor increase in air pollution during dredging operations; and stimulation of local, State, and national economy. Temporary increase in turbidity and siltation in vicinity of the dredge and disposal areas; possible displacement of widelife species; disruption of benthic invertebrates in path of cutterhead and in open water disposal area; alteration of existing vegetation in disposal area; and possible increase in local mosquito population.