With the national and district-added PCN thresholds, any activity below these limits will have minimal individual or cumulative adverse effects on the aquatic environment. Special conditions are a mechanism to ensure that the individual or cumulative adverse effects of an activity are minimal. For example, special conditions may require the permittee to perform the work at certain times of the year to avoid individual or cumulative adverse effects on spawning fish or provide compensatory mitigation to offset losses of functions and values of aquatic resources to the level of minimal adverse effects, individually or cumulatively, on the aquatic environment. High value waters, including wetlands, will receive additional protection, beyond that provided by the nationwide PCNs and thresholds, through regional conditioning of NWPs. Corps regional conditions do not supersede the general conditions of the NWP program.
Regional conditions can only increase the protection of the aquatic environment.
Each decision document will include a statement, by the Division Engineer, certifying that the Corps regional conditions imposed on the NWPs will ensure that those NWPs will only authorize activities that result in minimal adverse effects, individually or cumulatively, after consideration of any compensatory mitigation the Corps may require. Activities involving individual or cumulative adverse effects that can not be reduced to the minimal level with compensatory mitigation, or where the district has identified a clearly practicable and available offsite alternative, are subject to the individual permit process. The individual permit process includes the offsite alternatives analysis, individual public notice procedures, and other aspects of individual review that help ensure that potential individual or cumulative adverse effects are fully avoided and minimized to the maximum extent practicable before an activity is authorized. Cumulative adverse effects on the aquatic environment caused by activities authorized by NWPs must be monitored and evaluated by district engineers on a watershed basis. Assessment of cumulative adverse environmental effects on a watershed basis is the only technically sound approach and must focus on essential aquatic functions and values.