Proposed Revisions to the California Mitigation Bank Enabling Instrument (BEI) Template
Comments Due: February 9, 2024
Subject:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) South Pacific Division, including its Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles Districts, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board), and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), as potential participants in Interagency Review Teams (IRT), collectively known as IRT agencies, propose to revise the California Mitigation Bank Enabling Instrument (BEI) template for use in the development of mitigation banks, including service areas, within the State of California. This notice is to inform interested parties of the availability of the revised BEI template and to solicit comments from interested parties. This notice may be viewed at:
http://www.spd.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/PublicNoticesandReferences.aspx
AUTHORITY: The revised BEI template would supersede the previous version of the BEI template, published in May 2021. The revised BEI template would be used in the development of mitigation banks within the state of California and mitigation banks in adjacent states with service areas that extend into the state of California, which provide compensatory mitigation for regulated impacts authorized under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, as well as mitigation for the other IRT agencies.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Pursuant to the 2011 Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Mitigation and Conservation Banking and In-Lieu Fee Programs in California, the IRT agencies have jointly revised the California BEI template (attached) The IRT agencies have committed to establishing a combined and coordinated approach to mitigation banking in the State of California, which includes development of IRT approved template documents. It is expected that, with IRT approved templates, agencies, and mitigation bank sponsors will be able to proceed with confidence that regulatory needs are met, and the information used in the mitigation bank review and approval process is adequate, predictable, consistent, and timely.
Proposed revisions include substantive updates to required financial assurances. Specifically, the amount of the Performance Security would be reduced from 20% down to 10% of the construction costs, and an additional fourth financial assurance would be required. The Compliance Security would now be held through Bank Closure and the Performance Security would be returned upon written notification that all final Performance Standards for each credit type at the mitigation bank have been met. These revisions were made to allow a reduction of the overall financial assurance amount held through Bank Closure in response to comments received from mitigation bank sponsors in response to the new procedures for tracking bulk credit purchases included in the previous BEI template. Other changes were made throughout the BEI template to provide clarity, correct typographical errors, and fix references. In addition to the clean copy of the updated BEI template attached to this notice, a redline version is also included.
The Corps is soliciting comments from the public, federal, state, and local agencies, Indian tribes, and other interested parties to consider and evaluate the proposed revisions.
Written comments may be submitted, by February 9, 2023, via email to Laura.b.shively@usace.army.mil.
If you have questions or wish to discuss these changes, representatives from each of the above agencies, as members of the Project Delivery Team will be available on February 7, 2024, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, via WebEx:
WebEx Address:
https://usace1.webex.com/usace1/j.php?MTID=m96f3389723fb5bfb4c40514bc7458823 Meeting Number(s): 2764 684 5975
Meeting password: cdFTEup$352
For those unable to use WebEx or who need to call in directly for audio:
+1-844-800-2712 US Toll Free
+1-669-234-1177 US Toll
Access code: 2764 684 5975
If you have questions or need additional information, please contact Ms. Laura Shively at (916) 557-5258 or email at Laura.b.shively@usace.army.mil.
Attachments: Revised BEI template
Revised BEI template Redline