Unsure if you need a permit for your project?

The Corps holds a monthly Interagency Meeting on the second Thursday of every month for potential applicants to receive feedback on upcoming projects.

We invite representatives from local, state and federal agencies to attend so that they may hear a project presentation from the applicant and offer feedback on the project as proposed.

Prospective applicants can request that their project be included in the next interagency meeting by emailing cespn-rg-submittal@usace.army.mil

More information can be found here: San Francisco District > Missions > Regulatory > Interagency Meetings (army.mil)

“Waters of the United States” is legally defined in section 40 CFR 230.3(s) of the Clean Water Act , as well as at 33 CFR Part 328 . However, this term is also used more generally to refer to all wetlands and surface waters considered to be jurisdictional under the USACE Regulatory program.

The term "fill" refers to material placed in waters of the U.S. in which the material has the effect of:

• Replacing any portion of a water of the U.S. with dry land; or Changing the bottom elevation of any portion of a water of the U.S.

Examples of such fill material can include, but are not limited to rock, sand, soil, clay, plastics, construction debris, wood chips, overburden from mining or other excavation activities, and materials used to create any structure or infrastructure in the waters of the United States.

Any person, firm, tribe or agency (including Federal, state, and local government agencies) planning to work in navigable waters of the United States, or discharge dredged or fill material in waters of the United States, including wetlands, must first obtain a permit from USACE Regulatory. Permits, licenses, variances, or similar authorization may also be required by other Federal, state and local statutes.

Wetlands are areas that are periodically or permanently inundated by surface or ground water and support vegetation adapted for life in saturated soil. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas. Caution: Most wetlands lack both standing water and waterlogged soils during at least part of the growing season.

To know if there are wetlands on your site/property, you should have a wetland delineation conducted. Completing a wetland delineation requires expertise and is typically done by a professional wetland scientist. You may hire a professional wetland scientist to delineate wetlands on your site/property. After the delineation is completed submit the report to USACE Regulatory and we will verify the accuracy of the wetland delineation.

Debris removal generally does not require USACE Regulatory involvement when conducted using these guidelines:

• Does not occur in a Navigable waterway.

• Do not use machinery in waters in a way that moves soil or other native material from one location to another along the substrate (for example, bulldozing or pushing/dragging material with an excavator bucket prior to scooping it out).

• Only conduct surface level vegetation or debris removal. Do not remove roots.

• Do not dig into the soil/sediment of a water’s bed or banks.

• Removed material must be placed/stored in uplands without return of material or drained water back into the waterbody.

Information on specific permits can be found here: CESPN Nationwide Permitting (army.mil)

Mitigation hierarchy: Avoidance -> minimization -> compensatory mitigation

Applicant must show that they’ve avoided and minimized impacts to waters of the US to the extent practicable before we will consider proposals for compensatory mitigation

https://www.spn.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/Mitigation/

On September 27, 2023, the final 2023 Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality Certification Improvement Rule was published in the Federal Register. The final 2023 Rule went into effect on November 27, 2023. More information on the final 2023 Rule is available here

For more detailed information, here is the link to EPA website (https://www.epa.gov/cwa-401/overview-cwa-section-401-certification

The CWA provides that certifying authorities (states, authorized tribes, and EPA) must act on a Section 401 certification request "within a reasonable period of time (which shall not to exceed one year) after receipt" of such a request.

Once the federal licensing or permitting agency receives both the application for the license or permit and a certification, it must immediately notify EPA under the neighboring jurisdiction process set forth in CWA section 401(a)(2). A federal agency may not issue a license or permit for an activity that may result in a discharge into waters of the United States prior to the completion of the CWA section 401(a)(2) process.

• Read Clean Water Act Section 401

https://www.spn.usace.army.mil/Portals/68/docs/regulatory/2%20-%20Info%20Req.pdf

The Regulatory Guidance Letter (RGL) 16-01 explains the differences between these two types of JDs and provides guidance on when an approved JD is required and when a landowner, permit applicant, or other “affected party” can decline to request and obtain an approved JD and elect to use a preliminary JD instead.