[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 83 (Monday, April 29, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33392-33393]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-09123]



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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[Docket No. FWS-R3-ES-2023-0249; FXES11140300000-245-FF03E00000]


Receipt of Incidental Take Permit Application and Proposed 
Habitat Conservation Plan for the Prosperity Wind Project, Piatt 
County, IL; Categorical Exclusion

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability of documents; request for comment and 
information.

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SUMMARY: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have received an 
application from Prosperity Wind LLC (applicant), for an incidental 
take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act, for its Prosperity 
Wind Project (project). If approved, the ITP would be for a 6-year 
period and would authorize the incidental take of two endangered 
species, the Indiana bat and the northern long-eared bat, and one 
species proposed as endangered, the tricolored bat. The applicant has 
prepared a proposed habitat conservation plan (HCP) in support of the 
application. We request public comment on the application, which 
includes the applicant's HCP, and on the Service's preliminary 
determination that the proposed permitting action may be eligible for a 
categorical exclusion pursuant to the Council on Environmental 
Quality's National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations, the 
Department of the Interior's (DOI) NEPA regulations, and the DOI 
Departmental Manual. To make this preliminary determination, we 
prepared a draft environmental action statement and low-effect 
screening form, both of which are also available for public review. We 
invite comment from the public and local, State, Tribal, and Federal 
agencies.

DATES: We must receive your written comments on or before May 29, 2024.

ADDRESSES: 
    Obtaining Documents: The documents this notice announces, as well 
as any comments and other materials that we receive, will be available 
for public inspection online in Docket No. FWS-R3-ES-2023-0249 at 
https://www.regulations.gov.
    Submitting Comments: If you wish to submit comments on any of the 
documents, you may do so in writing by one of the following methods:
     Online: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments on Docket No. FWS-R3-ES-2023-0249.
     U.S. mail: Public Comments Processing, Attn: Docket No. 
FWS-R3-ES-2023-0249; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; 5275 Leesburg 
Pike, MS: PRB/3W; Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kraig McPeek, Field Supervisor, 
Illinois-Iowa Ecological Services Field Office, by email at 
[email protected] or by telephone at 309-757-5800, extension 202; or 
Andrew Horton, Regional HCP Coordinator, by email at 
[email protected] or by telephone at 612-713-5337. Individuals in 
the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a 
speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access 
telecommunications relay services. Individuals outside the United 
States should use the relay services offered within their country to 
make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
(Service), have received an application from Prosperity Wind LLC 
(applicant) for a 6-year incidental take permit (ITP) under the 
Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et 
seq.). The applicant requests the ITP to take the Indiana bat (Myotis 
sodalis) and northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis), both 
federally listed as endangered, and the tricolored bat (Perimyotis 
subflavus), which has been proposed for listing as endangered. Take 
would be incidental to the operation of 50 wind turbines with a total 
generating capacity of 300 megawatts (MW) at the Prosperity Wind 
Project in Piatt County, Illinois. While the ITP would be for 6 years, 
the operational life of most new wind energy facilities is 30 years; 
therefore, intensive monitoring conducted during the 6-year permit term 
would inform the need for future avoidance or a future new or revised 
long-term ITP for the remaining life of the project that would comply 
with a new NEPA analysis and habitat conservation plan (HCP). The 
applicant has prepared an HCP that describes the actions and measures 
that the applicant would implement to avoid, minimize, and mitigate 
incidental take of the covered species for the first 6 years.
    We request public comment on the application, which includes the 
applicant's proposed HCP, and on the Service's preliminary 
determination that this HCP qualifies as ``low effect,'' and may 
qualify for a categorical exclusion pursuant to the Council on 
Environmental Quality's National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 
regulations (40 CFR 1501.4), the Department of the Interior's (DOI) 
NEPA regulations (43 CFR 46), and the DOI's Departmental Manual (516 DM 
8.5(C)(2)). To make this preliminary determination, we prepared a draft 
environmental action statement and low-effect screening form, both of 
which are also available for public review.

Background

    Section 9 of the ESA and its implementing regulations prohibit the 
``take'' of animal species listed as endangered or threatened. Take is 
defined under the ESA as to ``harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, 
kill, trap, capture, or collect [listed animal species], or to attempt 
to engage in any such conduct'' (16 U.S.C. 1532). However, under 
section 10(a) of the ESA, we may issue permits to authorize incidental 
take of listed species. ``Incidental take'' is defined by the ESA as 
take that is incidental to, and not the purpose of, carrying out an 
otherwise lawful activity (16 U.S.C. 1539). Regulations governing 
incidental take permits for endangered and threatened species, 
respectively, are found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at 50 
CFR 17.22 and 50 CFR 17.32.

Applicant's Proposed Project

    The applicant requests a 6-year ITP to take the federally 
endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), federally endangered northern 
long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis), and the proposed endangered 
tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus). The applicant determined that 
take is reasonably certain to occur incidental to operation of 50 
previously constructed wind turbines in Piatt County, Illinois, 
covering approximately 9,623 hectares (23,779 acres) of private land. 
The proposed conservation strategy in the applicant's proposed HCP is 
designed to avoid, minimize, and mitigate the impacts of the covered 
activity on the covered species. The biological goals and objectives 
are to minimize potential take of the three covered bat species through 
on-site minimization measures and to provide habitat conservation 
measures to offset any impacts from project operations. The HCP 
provides on-site avoidance and minimization measures, which include 
turbine operational adjustments. The authorized level of take from the 
project is 18 Indiana bats, 2 northern long-eared bats and 18 
tricolored bats over the 6-year permit duration. To offset the impacts 
of the taking of the species, the applicant will implement one or more 
of the following mitigation options:

[[Page 33393]]

     Purchase credits from an approved conservation bank;
     Contribute to an in-lieu fee mitigation fund;
     Implement a permittee-responsible mitigation project; or
     Contribute to a white-nose syndrome treatment fund.

National Environmental Policy Act

    The issuance of an ITP is a Federal action that triggers the need 
for compliance with NEPA. The Service has made a preliminary 
determination that the applicant's proposed project, and the proposed 
mitigation measures, would individually and cumulatively have a minor 
effect on the covered species and the human environment. Therefore, we 
have preliminarily determined that the proposed ESA section 10(a)(1)(B) 
permit would be a low-effect ITP that individually or cumulatively 
would have a minor effect on the species and may qualify for 
application of a categorical exclusion pursuant to the Council on 
Environmental Quality's NEPA regulations, DOI's NEPA regulations, and 
the DOI Departmental Manual. A low-effect ITP is one that would result 
in (1) minor or nonsignificant effects on species covered in the HCP; 
(2) nonsignificant effects on the human environment; and (3) impacts 
that, when added together with the impacts of other past, present, and 
reasonably foreseeable actions, would not result in significant 
cumulative effects to the human environment.

Next Steps

    The Service will evaluate the application and the comments received 
to determine whether to issue the requested ITP. We will also conduct 
an intra-Service consultation pursuant to section 7 of the ESA to 
evaluate the effects of the proposed take. After considering the 
preceding and other matters, we will determine whether the permit 
issuance criteria of section 10(a)(1)(B) of the ESA have been met. If 
met, the Service will issue the requested ITP to the applicant.

Request for Public Comments

    The Service invites comments and suggestions from all interested 
parties on the proposed HCP and screening form during a 30-day public 
comment period (see DATES). In particular, information and comments 
regarding the following topics are requested:
    1. Whether the adaptive management, monitoring, and mitigation 
provisions in the proposed HCP are sufficient;
    2. The requested 6-year ITP term;
    3. Any threats to the Indiana bat, northern long-eared bat, and 
tricolored bat that may influence their populations over the life of 
the ITP that are not addressed in the proposed HCP or screening form;
    4. Any new information on white-nose syndrome effects on the 
covered bat species;
    5. Whether or not the significance of the impact on various aspects 
of the human environment has been adequately analyzed; and
    6. Any other information pertinent to evaluating the effects of the 
proposed action on the human environment.

Availability of Public Comments

    You may submit comments by one of the methods shown under 
ADDRESSES. We will post on https://regulations.gov all public comments 
and information received electronically or via hardcopy. All comments 
received, including names and addresses, will become part of the 
administrative 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. 
1539(c)) and its implementing regulations (50 CFR 17.22) and NEPA (42 
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and its implementing regulations (40 CFR 1500-
1508; 43 CFR part 46).

Karen Herrington,
Acting Assistant Regional Director, Ecological Services.
[FR Doc. 2024-09123 Filed 4-26-24; 8:45 am]
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