Date: September 21, 2018
The purpose of this Public Notice is to inform the general public that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District (Portland District) signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Clean Water Services, to accept and expend funds to expedite the processing of their Department of the Army (DA) permit applications, subject to a series of limitations.
On August 30, 2018, the Portland District Commander determined that acceptance and expenditure of such funds would be in accordance with Section 214 of the Water Resources Development Act of 2000, as amended [WRDA 214 requirements, as amended by the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014, are now codified under 33 U.S.C 2352].
On June 12, 2018, the Portland District circulated the initial Public Notice announcing our preliminary intent to accept and expend such funds, and stated that we had initiated funding discussions with Clean Water Services. The June 12, 2018 Public Notice also discussed the kind of activities for which funds would be expended and the safeguarding procedures which would be used to ensure that funds will not impact impartial decisionmaking. Those procedures include:
a. All final permit decisions for cases where these funds are used must be reviewed at least by one level above the normal decisionmaker. For example, if the decisionmaker is the Chief, Regulatory Branch, then the reviewer would be the Chief, Operations Division.
b. All final permit decisions for cases where these funds are used will be made available on the web.
c. The Portland District will not eliminate any procedures or decisions that would otherwise be required for that type of project and permit application under consideration.
d. The Portland District must comply with all applicable laws and regulations.
e. Funds will only be expended to expedite the final decision on the permit application. Funds will not be expended for the review of the decisionmaker’s decision. If contracts are used to develop decision documents, such decision documents must be drafts only, for review and adoption, as appropriate, by Corps of Engineers Regulatory program employees, before the decision is made.
Copies of the June 2018 Public Notice, and this Public Notice are available on the Portland District Regulatory website at:
www.nwp.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/WRDA.aspx