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SAJ-2024-02130

USACE Jacksonville District, Regulatory Division
Published Dec. 9, 2024
Expiration date: 12/26/2024

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: The Jacksonville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) has received an application for a Department of the Army permit pursuant to Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. §1344) and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 (33 U.S.C. §403) as described below:

 

APPLICANT:  Erin Griffith

                     Franklin County Board of County Commissioners

                     33 Market Street

Suite 203

Apalachicola, FL 32320

 

AGENT:         Ken Greenwood

                     Florida Environmental & Land Services

                     221-4 Delta Court

                     Tallahassee, FL 32303

 

WATERWAY AND LOCATION:  The project would affect waters of the United States associated with Womack Creek and Pine Log Creek. The project/review area is located on County Road 67 north to the Liberty County Line, in 35 Section, 5 South Township, 4 West Range, at Latitude 29.993510 and Longitude -84.606140, in Carrabelle, Franklin County, Florida.

 

Directions to the site are as follows: From Carrabelle, take County Road 67 north to Forest Road 172.

         

PROJECT PURPOSE:

 

Basic: The basic project purpose is maintenance for an existing roadway for public safety.

 

Overall: The overall project purpose is repair of worn road surface and bring the existing roadway to current engineering design safety standards.

 

PROPOSED WORK: The applicant requests authorization to repave 2.5 miles of existing public roadway, with paved shoulders and regrade the side slopes. The project will impact 2.92 acres of existing wetlands in the road right-of-way and cause 12.1 acres of secondary impacts.

 

EXISTING CONDITIONS: The project area is located within the Womack Creek-Ochlockonee watershed and intersects wetlands categorized as freshwater forested/shrub wetlands. The project area does encompass an existing roadway with disturbed/modern features, but the surrounding land use is a mix of temperate flooded and swamp forest, near-coast pine flatwoods, and herbaceous agricultural vegetation.   

 

AVOIDANCE AND MINIMIZATION: The applicant has provided the following information in support of efforts to avoid and/or minimize impacts to the aquatic environment: The project has reduced wetland impacts to the minimum needed to repair and upgrade roadway to meet current engineering design and safety standards. Nearly all of the proposed wetland impacts will occur within the periodically mowed part of the right of way between the edge of the pavement and the roadside ditch. These impacted areas will be re-graded as needed to maintain minimum slopes as required by FDOT standards. The impacts are also expected to be temporary since the herbaceous wetland vegetation reestablishing. The proposed direct wetland impacts are to significantly alter the parallel right of way wetlands with herbaceous cover. Therefore, secondary impacts will be minimal. The proposed wetland impacts will not result in wetland tree removal and will not remove the existing edge of the tree or shrub canopy. Once the disturbed areas have reestablished the herbaceous cover, the adjacent wetlands be no more disturbed than they are now. There will be no change in the edge vegetation, no tree removal will occur, and no additional areas will be mowed. 

 

COMPENSATORY MITIGATION: The applicant offered the following compensatory mitigation plan to offset unavoidable functional loss to the aquatic environment: Impacts will be offset by purchase of 0.699 wetland mitigation credits from the St. Marks Mitigation Bank.

 

CULTURAL RESOURCES: Pursuant to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, Appendix C of 33 CFR Part 325, and the 2005 Revised Interim Guidance for Implementing Appendix C, the District Engineer consulted district files and records and the latest published version of the National Register of Historic Places and initially determines that:

 

Should historic properties (i.e., properties listed in or eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places) be present within the Corps’ permit area, the proposed activity requiring the DA permit (the undertaking) is a type of activity that has no potential to cause an effect to an historic property.

 

The District Engineer’s final eligibility and effect determination will be based upon coordination with the SHPO and/or THPO, as appropriate and required, and with full consideration given to the proposed undertaking’s potential direct and indirect effects on historic properties within the Corps-identified permit area.

 

ENDANGERED SPECIES: The Corps has performed an initial review of the application, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Information for Planning and Consultation (IPaC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Southeast Regional Office Section 7 Mapper, and the NMFS Critical Habitat Mapper to determine if any threatened, endangered, proposed, or candidate species, as well as the proposed and final designated critical habitat may occur within the boundary of the proposed project. Based on this initial review, the Corps has made a preliminary determination that the proposed project may affect species and critical habitat listed in Table 1. No other ESA-listed species or critical habitat will be affected by the proposed action.

 

Table 01: ESA-listed species and/or critical habitat potentially present in the action area.

Species Common Name and/or Critical Habitat Name

Scientific Name

Federal Status

Alligator Snapping Turtle

(Macrochelys temminckii)

Proposed Threatened

Eastern Black Rail

(Laterallus jamaicensis ssp. Jamaicensis)

Threatened

Eastern Indigo Snake

(Drymarchon couperi)

Threatened

Godfrey’s Butterwort

(Pinguicula ionantha)

Threatened

Gulf Sturgeon

(Acipenser oxyrinchus (=oxyrhynchus) desotoi)

Threatened

Red-Cockaded Woodpecker

(Leuconotopicus borealis)

Endangered

Telephus Spurge

(Euphorbia telephioides)

Threatened

Tricolored Bat

(Perimyotis subflavus)

Proposed Endangered

White Birds-in-a-Nest

(Macbridea alba)

Threatened

 

Pursuant to Section 7 ESA, any required consultation with the Service(s) will be conducted in accordance with 50 CFR part 402.

 

This notice serves as request to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service for any additional information on whether any listed or proposed to be listed endangered or threatened species or critical habitat may be present in the area which would be affected by the proposed activity.

 

ESSENTIAL FISH HABITAT: Pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act 1996, the Corps reviewed the project area, examined information provided by the applicant, and consulted available species information.

 

The Corps has determined the proposal would have no effect on any Essential Fish Habitat (EFH). No EFH was identified within or near the project location, therefore, no consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service on EFH as required by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act 1996 is required.

 

NAVIGATION: The proposed structure or activity is not located in the vicinity of a federal navigation channel.

 

SECTION 408: The applicant will not require permission under Section 14 of the Rivers and Harbors Act (33 USC 408) because the activity, in whole or in part,   would not alter, occupy, or use a Corps Civil Works project.

 

WATER QUALITY CERTIFICATION: Water Quality Certification may be required from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).

 

COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT CONSISTENCY: Florida state approval constitutes compliance with the approved Coastal Zone Management Plan.

 

NOTE:  This public notice is being issued based on information furnished by the applicant. This information has not been verified or evaluated to ensure compliance with laws and regulation governing the regulatory program. The jurisdictional line has not been verified by Corps personnel.

 

EVALUATION: The decision whether to issue a permit will be based on an evaluation of the probable impact including cumulative impacts of the proposed activity on the public interest. That decision will reflect the national concern for both protection and utilization of important resources. The benefits, which reasonably may be expected to accrue from the proposal, must be balanced against its reasonably foreseeable detriments. All factors which may be relevant to the proposal will be considered including cumulative impacts thereof; among these are conservation, economics, esthetics, general environmental concerns, wetlands, historical properties, fish and wildlife values, flood hazards, floodplain values, land use, navigation, shoreline erosion and accretion, recreation, water supply and conservation, water quality, energy needs, safety, food, and fiber production, mineral needs, considerations of property ownership, and in general, the needs and welfare of the people. Evaluation of the impact of the activity on the public interest will also include application of the guidelines promulgated by the Administrator, EPA, under authority of Section 404(b) of the Clean Water Act or the criteria established under authority of Section 102(a) of the Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972. A permit will be granted unless its issuance is found to be contrary to the public interest.

 

COMMENTS: The US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is soliciting comments from the public; Federal, State, and local agencies and officials; Indian Tribes; and other Interested parties in order to consider and evaluate the impacts of this proposed activity. Any comments received will be considered by the Corps to determine whether to issue, modify, condition, or deny a permit for this proposal. To make this determination, comments are used to assess impacts to endangered species, historic properties, water quality, general environmental effects, and the other public interest factors listed above. Comments are also used to determine the need for a public hearing and to determine the overall public interest of the proposed activity.

 

The Jacksonville District will receive written comments on the proposed work, as outlined above, until December 26, 2024. Comments should be submitted to Eric Parks, in writing at the Technical Regional Execution Center (TREC), 100 West Oglethorpe Avenue., Savannah, GA 31401, by electronic mail at Eric.M.Parks@usace.army.mil, or by telephone at (912) 856-7137. Please refer to the permit application number in your comments. Additional drawings can be provided upon request.

 

Any person may request, in writing, within the comment period specified in this notice, that a public hearing be held to consider the application. Requests for public hearings shall state, with particularity, the reasons for holding a public hearing. Requests for a public hearing will be granted, unless the District Engineer determines that the issues raised are insubstantial or there is otherwise no valid interest to be served by a hearing.