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This serves as notification from the State of Georgia Coastal Management Program (GCMP), in accordance with and 15 C.F.R. 930.42, of receipt of the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Regional Consistency Determination for Establishing Shipping Safety Fairways and Associated Vessel Routing Measures Along the Atlantic Coast (September 5, 2025) as described in the Federal Register at Dockets No. USCG-2019-0279 and USCG-2023-0928 under the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). The purpose of the Proposed Action is to preserve safe and reliable transit of vessels along historic critical shipping routes essential for U.S. maritime economic prosperity and national security. The Coast Guard recognizes that increasing interest in new and innovative uses of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) creates a need to establish a resilient system of access to the major ports of the Atlantic Seaboard to ensure the Nation’s economic prosperity. The Coast Guard believes this need is best served by the establishment of consistent and well-defined vessel routing measures and a fairway anchorage.
The USCG is evaluating the effects of three alternatives. The No Action Alternative assumes that there are no new fairways. Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) extensions, new or modified precautionary areas, or anchorages would be established along the U.S. Atlantic Coast. All existing routing measures would remain unchanged. In addition, all other existing or other reasonably foreseeable future activities within the Study Area would continue. Alternative 1 is the Proposed Action and would include (1) the vessel routing measures and one fairway anchorage described in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), “Shipping Safety Fairways Along the Atlantic Coast” (89 FR 3587); (2) vessel routing measures in the Gulf of Maine described in the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) “Shipping Safety Fairways in the Gulf of Maine” (89 FR 91296); and (3) a zone in which Coast Guard may, in the future, establish additional routing measures off the coastline of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Alternative 2 would establish the vessel routing measures and fairway anchorage as proposed in Alternative 1 (Proposed Action) and would also include several extensions of selected east-west port-approach fairways out to the limit of the EEZ. The northernmost extension would begin at Portland, Maine, and the southernmost extension beginning at Cape Fear, North Carolina. The Coastal Consistency Determination, and GCMP’s Enforceable Policies are available to view or download at https://coastalgadnr.org/sites/default/files/crd/PublicNotice/260202%20-%20USCG%20Atlantic%20Fairways/EnforceablePolicies.pdf and the Federal Register notification is available at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/01/19/2024-00757/shipping-safety-fairways-along-the-atlantic-coast. A list of Program changes to the GCMP that affect current enforceable policies is available at https://coast.noaa.gov/czmprogramchange/#/public/home (click on Filter by Program and then select Georgia.)
The GCMP is reviewing the information provided to ensure the proposed activities authorized by the USCG are consistent with Georgia’s enforceable environmental policies. Comments specific to GCMP’s enforceable policies regarding this project should be submitted in writing to James Long, Department of Natural Resources, One Conservation Way, Brunswick Georgia 31520 or emailed to CRD.Comments@dnr.ga.gov and must be received by the close of business at 4:30PM on March 6th, 2026.
