[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 95 (Friday, May 15, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29474-29475]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-10120]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[FWS-R8-ES-2020-N062; FXES11140000-201-FF08E00000]


Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Upper Santa Ana 
River Wash Habitat Conservation Plan; San Bernardino County, CA

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce the 
availability of a final environmental impact statement (EIS) analyzing 
the impacts of issuance of two incidental take permits (ITPs) under the 
Endangered Species Act for implementation of the Upper Santa Ana River 
Wash Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP). Our proposed decision is to issue 
30-year ITPs to the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District 
(District) and the San Bernardino County Flood Control District 
(SBCFCD) covering two federally listed animal species, two federally 
listed plant species, and one non-listed animal species. The HCP covers 
activities for water conservation, aggregate mining, recreation, flood 
control, and other public services in San Bernardino County, 
California. The final EIS is a joint Environmental Impact Statement/
Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (EIS/SEIR). The final SEIR 
portion of the joint document was prepared by the District in 
compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act.

DATES: This notice initiates the availability of the final EIS. A 
record of decision will be signed no sooner than 30 days after the 
publication of this notice of availability in the Federal Register.

ADDRESSES: Obtaining Documents: You may obtain the documents by the 
following methods.
     Internet: https://www.fws.gov/carlsbad/HCPs/HCP_Docs.html 
or https://sbvwcd.org.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Contact either of the two following 
individuals for more information:
     Karin Cleary-Rose, USFWS, via email to [email protected], telephone at 760-322-2070, or U.S. mail at 777 E Tahquitz 
Canyon Way, Suite 208, Palm Springs, CA 92262; or
     Daniel Cozad, via email to [email protected].
    TTY users can contact the above individuals by calling 800-877-
8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Service received applications submitted 
by the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District (District, 
applicant), and the San Bernardino County Flood Control District 
(SBCFCD, applicant) for incidental take permits (ITPs) under section 10 
(a)(1)(B) of the Endangered Species Act, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 
1531 et seq.). The final environmental impact statement (EIS) was 
developed in compliance with the Service's decision-making requirements 
under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA; 42 U.S.C. 4321 et 
seq.) and analyzes three alternatives, including the Upper Santa Ana 
River Wash Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) submitted by the applicants. 
The applicants' proposed HCP covers five species (two federally listed 
animal species, two federally listed plant species, and one non-listed 
animal species). The HCP covers activities for water conservation, 
aggregate mining, recreation, flood control, and other public services 
in San Bernardino County, California. The EIS is a joint Environmental 
Impact Statement/Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (EIS/SEIR). 
The SEIR portion of the joint document was prepared by the District in 
compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. The EIS/SEIR 
evaluates the direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of several 
alternatives related to the Service's decision whether to issue ITPs in 
response to the District's and SBCFCD's applications. The project area 
lies within San Bernardino County, primarily in the cities of Highland 
and Redlands, as well as within the unincorporated County area. The 
plan area encompasses approximately 4,892 acres.

[[Page 29475]]

Background

    Section 9 of the ESA prohibits the ``take'' of fish and wildlife 
species federally listed as endangered without special exemption. 
Federal regulations promulgated under section 4(d) of the ESA may also 
prohibit take of fish and wildlife species federally listed as 
threatened. Take of the coastal California gnatcatcher (the only 
threatened animal species covered by the HCP) is prohibited by 
regulation.
    ``Take'' of federally listed fish or wildlife is defined under the 
ESA as to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, 
capture, or collect listed species, or attempt to engage in such 
conduct (16 U.S.C. 1538). ``Harm'' includes significant habitat 
modification or degradation that actually kills or injures listed 
wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, 
including breeding, feeding, and sheltering (50 CFR 17.3). Under 
limited circumstances, we may issue permits to authorize take that is 
incidental to and not the purpose of otherwise lawful activities.

Habitat Conservation Plan Covered Activities

    The Service's proposed action is to issue ITPs to the applicants 
consistent with the Upper Santa Ana River Wash HCP. The HCP covers two 
types of activities in the Upper Santa Ana River Wash Plan project 
area:
     Activities related to the operations and maintenance of 
existing facilities or land uses already in operation in the Wash, 
covering an area totaling 166.9 acres; and
     Expansion or enhancement of facilities planned for the 
Wash area, totaling 634.1 acres.

Habitat Conservation Plan Covered Species

    The proposed ITPs would cover five species. Incidental take 
authorization would be provided under the ITPs for the wildlife 
species; the plant species are included in recognition of the 
conservation measures provided under the HCP and to provide No 
Surprises assurances to the applicants for the covered plants under 50 
CFR 17.22(b)(5). The applicant's HCP includes the following species:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  Species                       Federal listing status
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coastal California gnatcatcher (Polioptila   Threatened.
 californica californica).
San Bernardino kangaroo rat (Dipodomys       Endangered.
 merriami parvus).
Cactus wren (Campylorhynchus                 Not listed.
 brunneicapillus).
Santa Ana River woolly-star (Eriastrum       Endangered.
 densifolium ssp. sanctorum).
Slender-horned spineflower (Dodecahema       Endangered.
 leptoceras).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The HCP proposes conservation measures considered necessary to 
minimize and mitigate, to the maximum extent practicable, the impacts 
of the incidental taking of covered species in the HCP.

National Environmental Policy Act Compliance

    The EIS/SEIR addresses the Federal and local actions associated 
with the proposed issuance of the ITPs and implementation of the HCP 
and covered activities. We published a notice of intent to prepare a 
draft EIS/SEIR in the Federal Register on March 3, 2015 (80 FR 11463), 
and we published the notice of availability of the draft EIS/SEIR on 
December 9, 2019 (84 FR 67292), which included a 45-day public comment 
period.
    The EIS/SEIR analyzes three alternatives: The No Action 
Alternative, the Proposed Action Alternative, and Action Alternative 1. 
The Service has identified the Proposed Action Alternative as the 
preferred alternative. We received 13 comment letters on the draft EIS/
SEIR and the proposed HCP. A response to each comment received in these 
letters has been included in the final EIS/SEIR. Minor revisions to the 
final EIS/SEIR or to the final HCP have been made to address the 
comments received on the draft documents. The descriptions and analysis 
of the three alternatives analyzed in the final EIS/SEIR generally 
remain the same as presented in the draft EIS/SEIR.

EPA's Role in the EIS Process

    In addition to this notice, the EPA is publishing a notice in the 
Federal Register announcing this EIS, as required under section 309 of 
the Clean Air Act. The publication date of EPA's notice of availability 
is the official beginning of the public comment period. EPA's notices 
are published on Fridays.
    EPA serves as the repository (EIS database) for EISs prepared by 
Federal agencies. All EISs must be filed with EPA. You may search for 
EPA comments on EISs, along with EISs themselves, at https://cdxnodengn.epa.gov/cdx-enepa-public/action/eis/search.

Public Review

    Any comments we receive will become part of the decision 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. 
1531 et seq.) and its implementing regulations (50 CFR 17.22), and NEPA 
(42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and NEPA implementing regulations (40 CFR 
1506.6).

Michael Fris,
Assistant Regional Director, Pacific Southwest Region, U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service, Sacramento, California.
[FR Doc. 2020-10120 Filed 5-14-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4333-15-P