[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 1, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35192-35194]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-09349]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[Docket No. FWS-R3-ES-2023-0248; FXES11140300000-245-FF03E00000]


Receipt of Incidental Take Permit Application and Proposed 
Habitat Conservation Plan for the Sweet Acres Wind Project, White 
County, IN; 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 Indiana Crossroads Wind Farm II LLC (applicant), for 
an incidental take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act, for 
its Sweet Acres Wind Project (project). If approved, the ITP would be 
for a 6-year period and would authorize the incidental take of the 
federally endangered Indiana bat, the federally endangered northern 
long-eared bat, and the tricolored bat and little brown bat, both of 
which are proposed for listing. The applicant has prepared a habitat 
conservation plan in support of the application. We request public 
comment on the application, which includes the applicant's proposed 
habitat conservation plan (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

[[Page 35193]]

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 31, 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-2023-0248 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-2023-0248.
     U.S. mail: Public Comments Processing, Attn: Docket No. 
FWS-R3-ES-2023-0248; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; 5275 Leesburg 
Pike, MS: PRB/3W; Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Susan Cooper, Field Supervisor, 
Indiana Ecological Services Field Office, by email at 
[email protected] or by telephone at 812-334-4261, extension 214; 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 Indiana Crossroads II Wind 
Farm 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 proposed as endangered 
tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus) and little brown bat (Myotis 
lucifugus), being considered for listing. Take would be incidental to 
the operation of 42 wind turbines, with a total generating capacity of 
201.6 megawatts (MW), at the Sweet Acres Wind Project in White County, 
Indiana. 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), proposed endangered tricolored 
bat (Perimyotis subflavus) and under discretionary review, the little 
brown bat (Myotis lucifugus). The applicant determined that take is 
reasonably certain to occur incidental to operation of 42 previously 
constructed wind turbines in White County, Indiana, covering 
approximately 11,646 hectares (28,778 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 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, 18 tricolored bats, and 18 
little brown bats bat 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:
     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

[[Page 35194]]

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 covered bat species 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 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) 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. 2024-09349 Filed 4-30-24; 8:45 am]
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