Lower South Platte River Study

• Contractor Name: Colorado Water Conservation Board
• Loan Projects - Doc Type: Feasibility Study

Lower South Platte River Study
Colorado Water Conservation Board
' December 2001
3.3 Local Permits
' In accordance with State Statute 1041, water projects must have the approval of the local
County Commissioners if 1041 authority over water development has been approved in the
' county where the project is located. The projects will be located in Logan or Sedgwick
County. If either county does not currently have State Statute 1041 authority over water
projects, this authority could be added by the county prior to project construction.
3.4 Agency Consultations
The NEPA process requires that consultation be held with key resource agencies. These
' often are completed in two steps—informal consultation prior to beginning the NEPA
process and formal consultation during NEPA, including scoping of environmental studies.
If the next phase of this investigation is authorized (Feasibility Study), we recommend that
' informal consultation be initiated if it is determined that the preferred alternative(s) will
require a NEPA compliance effort. At present, we believe that several of the projects being
considered will require federal permitting.
' 3.5 Potentials f mi tin
or Avoiding Federal Permitting
g
' Federal permitting through Section 404(b) of the Clean Water Act can usually be avoided if
the"discharge of dredge or fill materials into the navigable waters of the United States"can
' be avoided. Experience indicates that avoidance of this federal permitting process occurs
when:
' • The project is not constructed on federal lands
• Federal funds are not involved in the project
' • The project does not impact jurisdictional wetlands or waters of the United States.
(As discussed in Section 5.5, there are several sites that have the potential to be
exempt from Section 404 permitting requirements, thereby avoiding Federal
involvement under NEPA.)
• The project does not adversely impact on-site endangered species
' • The project does not affect natural springs, fens, or Sombrero Marsh in Colorado
If these criteria are met, a good strategy is to request a pre-application consultation with a
representative of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with jurisdiction in the region to review
the project. The Corps of Engineers Tri-lake Project office would be the initial contact. If it
appears that the project is exempt from Section 404(b) of the Clean Water Act, we
Irecommend providing some basic project information to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
and requesting a letter from the local office confirming this fact.
GEI Consultants, Inc. 3-7 01002 Dec 2001 Lower South Platte River Study