[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 83 (Monday, April 29, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33392-33393]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-09123]
[[Page 33392]]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service
[Docket No. FWS-R3-ES-2023-0249; FXES11140300000-245-FF03E00000]
Receipt of Incidental Take Permit Application and Proposed
Habitat Conservation Plan for the Prosperity Wind Project, Piatt
County, IL; Categorical Exclusion
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability of documents; request for comment and
information.
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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have received an
application from Prosperity Wind LLC (applicant), for an incidental
take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act, for its Prosperity
Wind Project (project). If approved, the ITP would be for a 6-year
period and would authorize the incidental take of two endangered
species, the Indiana bat and the northern long-eared bat, and one
species proposed as endangered, the tricolored bat. The applicant has
prepared a proposed habitat conservation plan (HCP) in support of the
application. We request public comment on the application, which
includes the applicant's HCP, and on the Service's preliminary
determination that the proposed permitting action may be eligible for a
categorical exclusion pursuant to the Council on Environmental
Quality's National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations, the
Department of the Interior's (DOI) NEPA regulations, and the DOI
Departmental Manual. To make this preliminary determination, we
prepared a draft environmental action statement and low-effect
screening form, both of which are also available for public review. We
invite comment from the public and local, State, Tribal, and Federal
agencies.
DATES: We must receive your written comments on or before May 29, 2024.
ADDRESSES:
Obtaining Documents: The documents this notice announces, as well
as any comments and other materials that we receive, will be available
for public inspection online in Docket No. FWS-R3-ES-2023-0249 at
https://www.regulations.gov.
Submitting Comments: If you wish to submit comments on any of the
documents, you may do so in writing by one of the following methods:
Online: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments on Docket No. FWS-R3-ES-2023-0249.
U.S. mail: Public Comments Processing, Attn: Docket No.
FWS-R3-ES-2023-0249; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; 5275 Leesburg
Pike, MS: PRB/3W; Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kraig McPeek, Field Supervisor,
Illinois-Iowa Ecological Services Field Office, by email at
[email protected] or by telephone at 309-757-5800, extension 202; or
Andrew Horton, Regional HCP Coordinator, by email at
[email protected] or by telephone at 612-713-5337. Individuals in
the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a
speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access
telecommunications relay services. Individuals outside the United
States should use the relay services offered within their country to
make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(Service), have received an application from Prosperity Wind LLC
(applicant) for a 6-year incidental take permit (ITP) under the
Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et
seq.). The applicant requests the ITP to take the Indiana bat (Myotis
sodalis) and northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis), both
federally listed as endangered, and the tricolored bat (Perimyotis
subflavus), which has been proposed for listing as endangered. Take
would be incidental to the operation of 50 wind turbines with a total
generating capacity of 300 megawatts (MW) at the Prosperity Wind
Project in Piatt County, Illinois. While the ITP would be for 6 years,
the operational life of most new wind energy facilities is 30 years;
therefore, intensive monitoring conducted during the 6-year permit term
would inform the need for future avoidance or a future new or revised
long-term ITP for the remaining life of the project that would comply
with a new NEPA analysis and habitat conservation plan (HCP). The
applicant has prepared an HCP that describes the actions and measures
that the applicant would implement to avoid, minimize, and mitigate
incidental take of the covered species for the first 6 years.
We request public comment on the application, which includes the
applicant's proposed HCP, and on the Service's preliminary
determination that this HCP qualifies as ``low effect,'' and may
qualify for a categorical exclusion pursuant to the Council on
Environmental Quality's National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
regulations (40 CFR 1501.4), the Department of the Interior's (DOI)
NEPA regulations (43 CFR 46), and the DOI's Departmental Manual (516 DM
8.5(C)(2)). To make this preliminary determination, we prepared a draft
environmental action statement and low-effect screening form, both of
which are also available for public review.
Background
Section 9 of the ESA and its implementing regulations prohibit the
``take'' of animal species listed as endangered or threatened. Take is
defined under the ESA as to ``harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound,
kill, trap, capture, or collect [listed animal species], or to attempt
to engage in any such conduct'' (16 U.S.C. 1532). However, under
section 10(a) of the ESA, we may issue permits to authorize incidental
take of listed species. ``Incidental take'' is defined by the ESA as
take that is incidental to, and not the purpose of, carrying out an
otherwise lawful activity (16 U.S.C. 1539). Regulations governing
incidental take permits for endangered and threatened species,
respectively, are found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at 50
CFR 17.22 and 50 CFR 17.32.
Applicant's Proposed Project
The applicant requests a 6-year ITP to take the federally
endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), federally endangered northern
long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis), and the proposed endangered
tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus). The applicant determined that
take is reasonably certain to occur incidental to operation of 50
previously constructed wind turbines in Piatt County, Illinois,
covering approximately 9,623 hectares (23,779 acres) of private land.
The proposed conservation strategy in the applicant's proposed HCP is
designed to avoid, minimize, and mitigate the impacts of the covered
activity on the covered species. The biological goals and objectives
are to minimize potential take of the three covered bat species through
on-site minimization measures and to provide habitat conservation
measures to offset any impacts from project operations. The HCP
provides on-site avoidance and minimization measures, which include
turbine operational adjustments. The authorized level of take from the
project is 18 Indiana bats, 2 northern long-eared bats and 18
tricolored bats over the 6-year permit duration. To offset the impacts
of the taking of the species, the applicant will implement one or more
of the following mitigation options:
[[Page 33393]]
Purchase credits from an approved conservation bank;
Contribute to an in-lieu fee mitigation fund;
Implement a permittee-responsible mitigation project; or
Contribute to a white-nose syndrome treatment fund.
National Environmental Policy Act
The issuance of an ITP is a Federal action that triggers the need
for compliance with NEPA. The Service has made a preliminary
determination that the applicant's proposed project, and the proposed
mitigation measures, would individually and cumulatively have a minor
effect on the covered species and the human environment. Therefore, we
have preliminarily determined that the proposed ESA section 10(a)(1)(B)
permit would be a low-effect ITP that individually or cumulatively
would have a minor effect on the species and may qualify for
application of a categorical exclusion pursuant to the Council on
Environmental Quality's NEPA regulations, DOI's NEPA regulations, and
the DOI Departmental Manual. A low-effect ITP is one that would result
in (1) minor or nonsignificant effects on species covered in the HCP;
(2) nonsignificant effects on the human environment; and (3) impacts
that, when added together with the impacts of other past, present, and
reasonably foreseeable actions, would not result in significant
cumulative effects to the human environment.
Next Steps
The Service will evaluate the application and the comments received
to determine whether to issue the requested ITP. We will also conduct
an intra-Service consultation pursuant to section 7 of the ESA to
evaluate the effects of the proposed take. After considering the
preceding and other matters, we will determine whether the permit
issuance criteria of section 10(a)(1)(B) of the ESA have been met. If
met, the Service will issue the requested ITP to the applicant.
Request for Public Comments
The Service invites comments and suggestions from all interested
parties on the proposed HCP and screening form during a 30-day public
comment period (see DATES). In particular, information and comments
regarding the following topics are requested:
1. Whether the adaptive management, monitoring, and mitigation
provisions in the proposed HCP are sufficient;
2. The requested 6-year ITP term;
3. Any threats to the Indiana bat, northern long-eared bat, and
tricolored bat that may influence their populations over the life of
the ITP that are not addressed in the proposed HCP or screening form;
4. Any new information on white-nose syndrome effects on the
covered bat species;
5. Whether or not the significance of the impact on various aspects
of the human environment has been adequately analyzed; and
6. Any other information pertinent to evaluating the effects of the
proposed action on the human environment.
Availability of Public Comments
You may submit comments by one of the methods shown under
ADDRESSES. We will post on https://regulations.gov all public comments
and information received electronically or via hardcopy. All comments
received, including names and addresses, will become part of the
administrative record associated with this action. Before including
your address, phone number, email address, or other personal
identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your
entire comment--including your personal identifying information--may be
made publicly available at any time. While you can request in your
comment that we withhold your personal identifying information from
public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so. All
submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals
identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations
or businesses, will be made available for public disclosure in their
entirety.
Authority
We provide this notice under section 10(c) of the ESA (16 U.S.C.
1539(c)) and its implementing regulations (50 CFR 17.22) and NEPA (42
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and its implementing regulations (40 CFR 1500-
1508; 43 CFR part 46).
Karen Herrington,
Acting Assistant Regional Director, Ecological Services.
[FR Doc. 2024-09123 Filed 4-26-24; 8:45 am]
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