This public feedback was instrumental in both the refinement and expansion of the latest Nationwide Permits, issued in early 2012. For example, NWP 21 for surface coal mining activities was revised to impose new limits on stream impacts, and gives operators who have not yet completed work in the waters of the United States the opportunity for reverification of all previously authorized activities.
The package includes two new Nationwide Permits: NWP 51, for the construction, expansion, or modification of land-based renewable energy facilities; and NWP 52, for water-based pilot projects involving wind or hydrokinetic energy. Because NWP 52’s authorization is limited to pilot projects, Moyer said, “There are a limited number of actual structures that can be put into the water, and only for a certain period of time. If a project proponent wants to keep the facility they’ve piloted, they’ll have to request authorization to keep the project going.”
- Tech Solutions: Information for Everyone – The renewal of the NWP is, for USACE, a process that showcases its commitment to efficiency, collaboration, inclusivity, and transparency. Information technology is a critical tool for keeping partners and stakeholders in the loop, and USACE recently developed a Web-based application to push data to stakeholders in the mitigation banking process – the program through which developers mitigate a project’s adverse impacts to a wetland, watershed, or conservation area.
The Regulatory In-Lieu Fee and Bank Information Tracking System (RIBITS) is an open database of information about existing and potential mitigation banks. “The public can query this database,” Moyer said. “If they want to build a project for which mitigation is required, they can figure out: ‘Does this bank have credits I can buy?’ ‘Can I buy into an in-lieu fee program?’ ‘How big is the service area?’ ‘Who do I contact to do this?’” RIBITS is no longer limited to USACE wetland and stream mitigation projects; it’s been expanded to include information on conservation banks for the FWS and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
USACE is in the final stages of licensing a mobile phone application for the Regulatory Program, which will be made available free to the public. The application will link users to information on the permitting process, provide locations for the nearest regulatory office, links to maps and video, and more.
Strategizing for Better Federal Decision-Making
As one of the oldest federal regulatory agencies, USACE has been instrumental to a larger strategic effort on the part of the Obama administration to strengthen the nation’s economy. A presidential memo, issued in August of last year, and Executive Order (EO) 13604, issued in March 2012, both focused the attention of federal agencies on the importance of the nation’s infrastructure to the economy. In his EO, President Barack Obama instructed federal agencies to collaborate and increase the efficiency of the permitting and review of infrastructure projects.
Norfolk District regulators Dave Knepper and Audrey Cotnoir compare notes during a wetland delineation in Chesapeake, Va., which is the process of determining the boundary between wetlands and non-wetlands through examination of vegetation, soils, and hydrology. The district’s 52-person regulatory staff processes more than 3,000 federal permit requests a year and covers the state’s 42,767 square miles. The USACE Regulatory Program gets its federal permitting authority from three sources: the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899 (the oldest federal environmental law in the United states), the Clean Water Act, and the 1972 Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act. U.S. Army photo/Mark W. Haviland
The outreach involved in streamlining these decisions is conside-rable. Consider a power transmission line, for example, or a road that traverses hundreds of miles, and the agencies that might be involved in reviewing it: USACE, EPA, FWS, NMFS, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the Department of Energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Transportation, tribal councils, and a host of state, regional, and local partners could all be involved.
Technology, of course, plays a role in linking the public to these ongoing collaborative efforts. A Web-based electronic dashboard allows the public to access information about what the federal government is doing to meet schedules for decisions.
USACE continues to play a leading role, said Moyer, working with interagency groups to develop protocols to ensure that federal decisions on projects are synchronized. Getting the federal government working together to speak with one voice so that permitting and environmental review processes across all federal agencies are understandable, coordinated, transparent, efficient, and effective is the ultimate goal. Moyer concluded: “The USACE Regulatory Program has focused on contributing meaningfully to this interagency effort over the past 18 months, and because we have a program that’s been around since 1899, we have a lot to contribute about what we’ve learned about how to be effective, efficient, and transparent in delivering a program that’s predictable to the public.”
This article originally appeared in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Building Strong®, Serving the Nation and the Armed Forces 2012-2013 Edition.