The Corps is hereby providing notification to the public regarding the establishment of a Special
Condition for previously issued Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 and/or Section
404 of the Clean Water Act authorizations/verifications in Pennsylvania. This notice affects
projects that were previously authorized or verified by the Corps, or the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP), through Nationwide Permits (NWP's),
Individual Permits (IP's), General Permits (GP's), Letters of Permission (LOP's), Pennsylvania
State Programmatic General Permit-4 (PASPGP-4), or other applicable Federal authorizations
and/or verifications where the authorized work has not been completed as of May 4, 2015
To ensure compliance with Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, the following Special
Conditions are hereby added to all previous authorizations and verifications issued by the Corps
for work in Pennsylvania, where the authorized work has not been completed as of
May 4, 2015:
1. Habitat screening for the Northern Long-Eared Bat (Myotis septentrionalis) is now
required in all counties of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and must be completed
by the permittee using the Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Index (PNDI) tool
http://www.naturalheritage.state.pa.us/ or directly coordinating with USFWS. All
previous PNDI receipts dated prior to May 4, 2015 are no longer valid, and a new PNDI
search is required to be run prior to the performance of any additional regulated work.
2. Any and all avoidance measures listed on the PNDI receipt for the Long-Eared Bat, or
in correspondence from USFWS related to the Long-Eared Bat, are a Special Condition(s)
of all previously issued authorizations/verifications
3. If the permittee cannot comply with avoidance measures referenced in Special Condition
2 above, or if the permittee believes that the avoidance measure(s) is outside of the
Corps Section 7 ESA scope of analysis, they must contact the appropriate Corps office.
The Corps will consult with USFWS, as appropriate, and the permittee should not
perform any additional regulated work until notified by Corps.
4. If the PNDI receipt requires further consultation with the USFWS, the permittee shall
contact the appropriate Corps office and cease all regulated work until they receive
written confirmation from the Corps that consultation under Section 7 of the Endangered
Species Act has been completed, or they have directly resolved the concerns with
USFWS.
.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(USFWS). The USFWS, the agency responsible for
implementing the Federal Endangered
Species Act, has determined that Northern Long-Eared Bats, now
listed as a Threatened
Species with Interim 4(d) Rule, occur throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
.
It is requested that you communicate the foregoing information to any persons known by you to
be interested and not being known to this office who did not receive a copy of this notice.
If you
have any questions regarding this matter, please contact Ms. Holly
A. Ross, Baltimore District
Corps of Engineers, Tioga Regulatory Field Office
, 710 lves Run Lane, Tioga, PA, 16946 or via
e-mail at holly.a
.ross@usace.army.mil.
.