ITEM 23 ATTACHMENT 6 - Project Plans

6 Individual Permit. The process for obtaining an Individual Permit requires a detailed alternatives analysis and development of a comprehensive mitigation/monitoring plan. Waters of the United States are defined as territorial seas and traditionally navigable waters, tributaries, lakes and ponds, and impoundments of jurisdictional waters, and adjacent wetlands. Under federal regulation, wetlands are defined as areas that are inundated or saturated by surface of groundwater at a frequency or duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. (33 CFR Part 328.3(c)(16)). Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. In addition, portions of the riparian habitat along a river or stream may be a wetland where the riparian vegetation is at or below the ordinary high water mark and thus also meets the wetland hydrology and hydric soil criteria. Navigable waters include all waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tides, including the open ocean, tidal bays, and tidal sloughs. Navigable waters also include some large, non-tidal rivers and lakes, which are important for transportation in commerce. The jurisdictional limit over navigable waters extends laterally to the entire water surface and bed of the waterbody landward to the limits of the mean high tide line. For non-tidal rivers or lakes, which have been designated (by the Corps) to be navigable waters, the limit of jurisdiction along the shoreline is defined by the ordinary high water mark. “Other waters” refer to waters of the United States other than wetlands or navigable waters. Other waters include streams and ponds, which are generally open water bodies and are not vegetated. Other waters can be perennial or intermittent water bodies and waterways. The Corps regulates other waters to the outward limit of the ordinary high water mark. Streams should exhibit a defined channel, bed and banks to be delineated as other waters. The Corps does not generally consider “non-tidal drainage and irrigation ditches excavated on dry land” to be jurisdictional waters of the United States (and such ditches would therefore not be regulated by the Corps (33 CFR Parts 320-330, November 13, 1986). Other areas generally not considered jurisdictional waters include: 1) artificially irrigated areas that would revert to upland habitat if the irrigation ceased; 2) artificial lakes and ponds created by excavating and/or diking of dry land to collect and retain water, used exclusively for such purposes as stock watering, irrigation, settling basins, or rice growing; 3) waste treatment ponds; 4) ponds formed by construction activities including borrow pits until abandoned; and 5) ponds created for aesthetic reasons such as reflecting or ornamental ponds (33 CFR Part 328.3). However, the preamble also states “the Corps reserves the right on a case-by-case basis to determine that a particular waterbody within these categories” can be regulated as jurisdictional water. The EPA also has authority to determine jurisdictional waters of the U.S. on a case-by-case basis. Riparian habitat that is above the ordinary high water mark and does not meet the three-parameter criteria for a wetland would not be regulated as jurisdictional waters of the United States.