STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE FOR UNIFORM PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

 
CORPS CONTACTS:
Los Angeles District:
Daniel P. Swenson (213) 452-3414 (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

San Francisco District:
Laurie Monarres (415) 503-6774 (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Albuquerque District:
Deanna Cummings (505) 342-3280 (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Sacramento District:
Will Ness (916) 557-5268 (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

South Pacific Division:
Tom Cavanaugh (415) 503-6574 (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

INTRODUCTION: This informational public notice announces a recently established procedure for determining compensatory mitigation performance standards as required for processing of Department of the Army (DA) permits under section 404 of the Clean Water Act, section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, and section 103 of the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act.

This procedure applies to the Regulatory Program within South Pacific Division (SPD), including its four subordinate districts: Albuquerque District (SPA), Sacramento District (SPK), Los Angeles District (SPL), and San Francisco District (SPN). This procedure became effective on August 8, 2012 for all projects that require compensatory mitigation. Compensatory mitigation is the restoration (re-establishment or rehabilitation), establishment (i.e., creation), enhancement, and/or in certain circumstances preservation of aquatic resources for the purposes of offsetting unavoidable, adverse impacts that remain after all appropriate and practicable avoidance and minimization of aquatic resources has been achieved.

Historically, the South Pacific Division (SPD) Regulatory Program has lacked a standardized procedure or guidance for determining compensatory mitigation performance standards as required for processing of Department of the Army (DA) permits under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, and Section 103 of the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act. In addition, the 2008 mitigation rule (33 C.F.R. Part 332) does not provide a detailed procedure for determining performance standards.

To address this long-standing need, a multi-district Project Delivery Team (PDT) was formed to develop a regional procedure for determining and documenting uniform compensatory mitigation performance standards, as well as accompanying guidance for Regulatory project managers. The purpose of this new, regional procedure is to reduce inconsistency between project managers, offices, and districts in determining compensatory mitigation performance standards, to incorporate current scientific understanding of mitigation concepts, and to require documentation of these key decisions, thereby reducing uncertainty on behalf of the regulated community regarding compensatory mitigation requirements. In addition, this new procedure incorporates recommendations of various outside reports/studies calling for expansion of performance standards beyond the traditionally flora-based standards.

While not all performance standards will be applied to all projects, nor will any particular standard have the same numerical or functional targets for all projects, this new procedure provides a foundation for Regulatory project managers to select appropriate ecological performance standards.

Benefits of the new procedure include:

• Better predictability for regulated community;
• Increased ability to ensure compliance;
• Better gauge of long-term ecological viability of mitigation sites;
• Allows improved scientific comparison between mitigation sites.

Performance standard categories consist of:

• Physical;
• Hydrologic;
• Water quality;
• Flora;
• Fauna.

Performance standards incorporate:

• Aquatic resource type;
• Reference sites (as appropriate);
• Corresponding functional/condition metrics (for some performance standards);
• Guidance.

Documents associated with the procedure (attached) are as follows:

• Procedure document;
• Table of uniform performance standards;
• Uniform performance standards worksheet.

AVAILABILITY: This procedure is part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Quality Management System (QMS). As such, it is not currently available for downloading by the public. In addition, this procedure may be updated periodically. To obtain the most recent version of these documents, please contact one of the individuals listed above.

To see all of the notice attachments, visit http://www.spd.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/PublicNoticesandReferences/tabid/10390/Article/7555/12505-spd.aspx .