• Main Authors: Jolie Harrison, East-west Highway
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Beluga; Beluga*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.430.9326; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/permits/apache_comments2014.pdf

Proposed 10-mile (16-kilometer) Exclusion Zone from Susitna River Delta: Apache asserts that the 10-mile (mi) (16-kilometer [km]) sound source exclusion zone described in the IHA should be modified to 5.9 mi (9.5 km). This is due to the results of the Sound Source Verification (SSV) study conducted in May 2012 (JASCO Applied Sciences 2013). There is no scientific basis or rationale for the 10-mi (16-km) zone spanning from the Beluga River to the Little Susitna River. The SSV study provides a sound, clear, and logical methodology for defining the ensonification boundary of the Level B take zone. In addition, the definition of the “Susitna Delta ” has evolved (and enlarged) over the past two years, as outlined in various iterations of the Biological Opinion (BiOp). Initially, the Susitna Delta was defined as “the area from Beluga River to Little Susitna River ” (BiOp dated February 17, 2012, page 19 [NMFS 2012]). The 10-mi (16-km) radius was then enlarged in the February 14, 2013 BiOp (Page 110, Condition No. 4 [NMFS 2013]) to “extend in all directions from both the Beluga River and the Little Susitna River, and the MHHW [Mean Higher High Water] line in between”. The exclusion zone now spans into