Subject: The purpose of this Special Public Notice is to hereby inform the public of revisions to the Pennsylvania State Programmatic General Permit- 4 (PASPGP-4). These changes are effective the date of this public notice. In accordance with Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the procedures for processing Corps authorizations, pursuant to Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and/or Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, the Corps is hereby providing notification to the public regarding amendment of the PASPGP-4. These revisions further streamline the PASPGP-4 review process by adding Avoidance Measures (AMs) identified on a Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory (PNDI) receipt for Federally listed threatened or endangered species as a Special Condition of the PASPGP-4 without the need for a Corps review of the application. Under the previous version of the PASPGP-4, all applications that contained a PNDI receipt with AMs for a Federally listed species was required to be processed by the Corps as a Category Ill Activity, and the Corps would typically add the AMs as a Special Condition of the authorization to ensure compliance with ESA. The term "Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory (PNDI)" has been added to Part II Definitions. PNDI is defined as: 'The PNDI refers to the current on-line environmental review tool for screening of State and Federally-listed threatened and endangered species managed by the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program. The term PNDI is inclusive of any future tools approved by the USFWS for screening of Federally-listed threatened and endangered species."
This notice affects proposed projects that may be verified under the PASPGP-4 by the Corps, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP), and delegated County Conservation Districts.