Background
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has issued an Incidental Take Permit under the Endangered Species Act to NiSource Inc. (now Columbia Pipeline Group), a natural gas storage and distribution company. The permit was issued in conjunction with the company’s comprehensive Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) to conserve dozens of endangered species while operating and maintaining its network of pipelines in 14 northeastern, midwestern and southeastern states. The permit allows "take" of 11 threatened and endangered species that may result from the company's routine construction, operation and maintenance activities within a one mile-wide corridor of their 15,562-mile pipeline network. NiSource’s HCP identifies how impacts to listed species from NiSource’s activities will be avoided and minimized and how any resulting “take” will be mitigated. The Incidental Take Permit does not authorize the pipeline work itself, only the take of listed species.
Development
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service worked closely with other federal agencies and NiSource to develop the HCP and associated documents. The role of the Service was to provide technical guidance as NiSource prepared the HCP and to evaluate the HCP to decide whether to issue an Incidental Take Permit. In addition, it was our responsibility to evaluate the federal action of issuing the Incidental Take Permit under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
Because certain NiSource activities to be covered by the Incidental Take Permit would also require authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Forest Service, and/or the National Park Service, these agencies were brought in to the HCP development. The HCP participants determined it would be more practical, and would give a more complete picture of the extent of effects, to: 1) address the effects of all federal and non‐federal actions in one analysis and 2) develop a conservation package that would sufficiently address all effects while providing additional conservation that would contribute to the recovery of listed species. This resulted in the NiSource Habitat Conservation Plan, Incidental Take Permit, consultation document, and Environmental Impact Statement. The Service was the lead federal agency for the Environmental Impact Statement and the section 7 consultation, and the others served as cooperating agencies.
Draft versions of the HCP and Environmental Impact Statement were available for public review and comment for 150 days in 2011. Both documents were finalized in June 2013. In September 2013, we issued a consultation document, which included the biological opinion and incidental take statement, that addressed potential impacts to 89 listed, proposed, and candidate species that may occur within the Covered Lands. For the 47 species not analyzed in the HCP, the Service will address potential take programmatically, through future tiered section 7 consultations. Under the programmatic section 7 approach, the cooperating agencies will continue to review all future projects to determine if they may affect listed species or designated critical habitat. The Incidental Take Permit, Implementing Agreement and Record of Decision were issued on September 13, 2013. In 2015, the HCP was updated to permit take of northern long-eared bat.
Implementation
The NiSource HCP is being implemented effective January 1, 2014. The Service and NiSource developed consultation implementation guidance to help federal agencies fulfill their section 7 consultation requirements. NiSource also developed a Best Management Practices Guidebook that details all of the avoidance and minimization measures and BMPs required for each listed, proposed, or candidate species that may be affected by the HCP. The Service also provided a training webinar to assist with implementing the HCP.
Mitigation
After all practicable steps have been taken to avoid and minimize take, Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act requires that all remaining take be mitigated. Mitigation measures include preserving existing habitat, enhancement or restoration of degraded habitat, establishment of new habitat, reestablishment or augmentation of populations, changes in current land use practices, and in some very specific instances, funds dedicated to research needs.
NiSource’s HCP includes a landscape-level approach to mitigation. Developed for NiSource by The Conservation Fund, the landscape-level approach provides a method for identifying and evaluating mitigation opportunities within a planned network of natural areas, developed lands and other open spaces that are managed to conserve ecosystem values and functions and also to benefit human populations. The result of The Conservation Fund’s assessment is a framework to identify mitigation opportunities that provide the greatest benefit for the species.
HCP and Associated Documents
Habitat Conservation Plan
Cover, Executive Summary, and Table of Contents
Chapters 1 - 5
Introduction
Chapter 2 - Covered Lands and Covered Activities
Chapter 3 - Physical and Biological Environmental Setting
Chapter 4 - Species Analyzed in the MSHCP
Chapter 5 - Conservation Strategy
Chapter 6 - Species Assessments, Impact Analysis, and Mitigation
Chapters 7 - 13
Chapter 7 - Monitoring, Reporting, and Adaptive Management
Chapter 8 - Funding Assurances
Chapter 9 - Amendment Process
Chapter 10 - Assurances
Chapter 11 - Alternatives to Take
Chapter 12 - List of Preparers
Chapter 13 - References Cited
Amendment adding Northern long-eared bat
Amendment to Northern long-eared bat AMM 29 (Service proposal)
Amendment to Northern long-eared bat AMM 29 (Columbia's Response)
Appendix A - Annual Acreage Disturbance Estimates
Appendix B - NiSource Environmental Construction Standards
Appendix C - Covered Activities Photographs
Appendix D - GIS Metadata
Appendix E - Conservation Lands Crossed by NiSource Facilities
Appendix F - Conservation Frameworks for the "Not Likely to Adversely Affect" Species
Appendix G - Take Species Maps
Appendix H - Implementation Agreement
Appendix I - NFWF Agreement
Appendix J - Horizontal Directional Drilling
Appendix K - Natural Gas Pipeline & Storage Permitting Processes
Appendix L - Survey and Other Protocols
Appendix L1 to L14
L1 Reserved
L2 Indiana Bat Habitat Assessment Protocols
L3 Determination of Potential Winter Habitat for Indiana Bats
L4 Indiana Bat Survey Protocols
L5 Service Guidelines for Bog Turtle Surveys April 2006
L6 Bog Turtle Pre-construction Survey Protocol
L7 Bog Turtle Recovery Plan - Appendix A
L8 Karst Monitoring Protocols
L9 Figure 6.2.3.3_2 Sinkhole Mitigation Procedures
L10 Figure 6.2.3.3_3 Sinkhole Mitigation Procedures
L11 Figure 6.2.3.3_4 Sinkhole Mitigation Procedures
L12 Figure 6.2.3.3_5 Sinkhole Mitigation Procedures
L13 WV Sinkhole Mitigation Guidance
L14 Herbicide List for use in Madison Cave Isopod Habitat
L15 - Mussel Survey Protocol
L16 - Mussel Relocation Mark/Recapture Protocols
L17, L18, and L19 - Sediment Transport Estimation Method, Disinfection Techniques, Riparian Restoration Standard
L21 - Nashville Crayfish Survey Protocol
L22, L23, and L24 - American Burying Beetle Protocols
Appendix M - Threats Analysis Tables
Appendix N - Mitigation Panel Charter
Appendix O - Information Planning and Consultation System
Appendix P - Easement/Acquisition Template
Incidental Take Permit
Incidental Take Permit (amended May 1, 2015)
Appendices to Incidental Take Permit
Biological Opinion
Biological Opinion
Appendices to Biological Opinion
Letter to Cooperating Federal Agencies
NEPA
Final Environmental Impact Statement
Table of Contents, Executive Summary, and Chapters 1-2
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - Description of Alternatives
Chapter 3 - Affected Environment
Chapters 4 - 9
Chapter 4 - Environmental Consequences
Chapter 5 - Cumulative Effects
Chapter 6 - Consultation and Coordination
Chapter 7 - List of Preparers
Chapter 8 - References
Chapter 9 - Acronyms and Abbreviations
Appendix A - Scoping Report and NOI
Appendix B - NiSource Covered Activities
Appendix C - FERC Plans and Procedures
Appendix D - Migratory Birds Information
Appendix E - HCP Species Information
Appendix F - Biological Assessment for the Non-HCP Listed Species
Appendix G - Summary of Public Comments
Environmental Assessment
Environmental Assessment for Amendment adding Northern long-eared bat
FONSI for Amendment adding Northern long-eared bat
Other Documents
Final Implementing Agreement for NiSource Habitat Conservation Plan
Record of Decision: Proposed Issuance of a Section 10(a)(1)(B) Incidental Take Permit to NiSource, Inc.
Statement of Findings for Amendment adding Northern long-eared bat
Federal Register Notice of Availability
NiSource Approach to Mitigation: Strategic Conservation Planning Using Green Infrastructure
Summary
Final Report
Decision Support Framework for Evaluating/Ranking Mitigation Sites
Network Design Methods
State Plan Review
Mitigation Site Report - Indiana Bat
Mitigation Site Report - Madison Cave Isopod
Mitigation Site Report - Mussels
Mitigation Site Report - Nashville Crayfish
