Federal Activities
Section 404 Wetland Permits
Section
404 of the Clean Water Act regulates the discharge
of dredged or fill material into waters of the United
States, including wetlands. The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers has regulatory authority over activities
that propose to impact these resources. The U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service reviews proposed activities
and provides comments on fish and wildlife resources
and on ways to avoid or minimize impacts. In addition,
the Service helps ensure that any impacts to our trust
resources that do occur are adequately compensated.
The New England Field Office follows the Service’s
Mitigation Policy to assess the adequacy of mitigation
alternatives.
The New England states, including Maine, Vermont,
Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Massachusetts,
along with the Service, the Corps, the Environmental
Protection Agency and the National Marines Fisheries
Service, have developed a joint processing
system that streamlines the permitting process
for projects that are considered to have only minimal
impacts. Projects that exceed the impact thresholds
of the State Programmatic General Permits (SPGPs)
are not eligible for review under the streamlined
process and are reviewed instead as Individual
Permits.
If the Service, EPA, or NMFS believe that a proposed
project whose direct impacts fall below the SPGP’s
thresholds will result in more than a minimal impact,
they have the ability to “kick out” the
project and review it as an Individual Permit.
Examples of this include projects that will affect
fish and wildlife resources through the fragmentation
of large blocks of habitat, projects that will
impact vernal pools and projects that do not provide
adequate mitigation. To find out more about each
state’s SPGP, please click the link below.
Maine: http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/reg/meall.pdf (pdf size 496KB)
Vermont: http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/reg/vtpgp.pdf (pdf size 664KB)
Connecticut: http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/reg/ctpgp.pdf (pdf size 1.2MB)
Rhode Island: http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/reg/FinalRIPGP.pdf (pdf size 831KB)
New Hampshire: http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/reg/NHPGPpermit.PDF (pdf size 490KB)
Massachusetts: http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/reg/mapgp.pdf (pdf size 2.2MB)
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Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act prohibits
the unauthorized obstruction or alteration of any
navigable water of the United States. The Service
reviews permits under Section 10 for activities that
include the filling of open water, the construction
of structures such as piers and bulkheads in navigable
waters, dredging and beach nourishment. The Service
provides recommendations on measures to avoid, minimize
and mitigate fish and wildlife resources impacted
by the proposed action.
Clean Water Act:
http://laws.fws.gov/lawsdigest/fwatrpo.html
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's
Mitigation Policy:
http://www.fws.gov/policy/npi89_02.html
Army Corps of Engineers – New England District:
http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/
Section 10 of Rivers and Harbors Act: http://www.usace.army.mil/inet/functions/cw/cecwo/reg/rhsec10.htm
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