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and Wildlife Service (USFWS); National Marine and Fisheries Service (NMFS); Texas 

 Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD); Texas Water Commission (TWC); Texas 

 General Land Office (GLO); Galveston Bay National Estuary Program; Texas Water 

 Development Board; U.S. Corps of Engineers (USACE); U.S. Coast Guard; Soil 

 Conservation Service; PHA; and Port of Galveston. 



One of the prime concerns of the Interagency Coordination Team focused on 

 the proposed dredged material disposal plan, which essentially called for confined 

 upland disposal in the inland reaches of the channel and continuation of open bay 

 unconfined disposal for the Galveston Bay reach. The willingness of the Port 

 Authority to bear up to $37 million in additional costs for development of beneficial 

 uses of dredged material further reinforced the Interagency CoordinationTeam's ability 

 to consider reducing adverse environmental impacts. 



THE BENEFICIAL USES GROUP (BUG) 



The Beneficial Uses Group was created as a subcommittee of the Interagency 

 Coordination Team. Included as part of the Beneficial Uses Group are: U.S. Army 

 Corps of Engineers; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Environmental Protection Agency; 

 National Marine and Fisheries Service; U.S. Soil Conservation Service (SCS); Texas 

 Parks and Wildlife Department; Texas General Land Office; and Port of Houston 

 Authority (Chair of the Beneficial Uses Group). 



The formally adopted purpose of the Beneficial Uses Group was "to develop a 

 disposal plan that utilizes dredged material in an environmentally sound and 

 economically acceptable manner that incorporates, to the extent possible, other public 

 benefits into its design". Most important was the committed objective that the final 

 plan would have a net positive environmental effect over the life of the project. 



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