The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe received notice from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) that the agency is in the process of reissuing its Nationwide Permits (NWPs) from headquarters as well as Regional General Conditions from the Seattle office. This includes waters that are on or run through tribal trust and reservation lands.

NWPs are a set of 57 categories of projects or actions that ACE has deemed pose “no more than minimal adverse environmental effects”. The Seattle District imposes additional conditions on these NWPs that are specific to our area, and both of these rules are in the process of being reissued. The purpose of an NWP is to provide broad approval by ACE for certain types of projects in order to streamline the permitting process by bypassing certain procedures that would otherwise be required under a standard individual permit. One of these procedures is obtaining Clean Water Act section 401 certification from the State and authorized Tribes (like Jamestown).

Through the authority granted to the Tribe under the Treatment in a Similar Manner as a State (TAS) program as outlined in section 518(e) of the Clean Water Act, the Tribe must either grant, condition, waive, or deny this permit on tribal lands depending on whether they comply with the Tribe’s water quality standards and/or tribal code. More information on the permits can be found HERE and the proposed Regional General Condition imposed by the Seattle district can be found HERE. 

After reviewing the provided documents and assessing potential impacts to tribal waters, our staff have decided to approve NWP numbers:
  • 5: Scientific measuring devices
  • 20: Response operations for oil or hazardous substances
  • 22: Removal of vessels
  • 27: Aquatic ecosystem restoration, enhancement and establishment activities
  • 48: Shellfish aquaculture (currently disallowed in Washington State, though, this may change in the future)
  • 54: Living shorelines
  • 55: Seaweed mariculture activities
Our staff have decided to deny certification for the remaining NWPs as they do not provide project-specific details and do not present enough information to accurately determine whether they will negatively impact the Tribe’s waters and the resources those waters support. Projects normally approved through NWPs can still be implemented, but they will go through the normal permitting process and be assessed on a project-level basis rather than having blanket approval allowed under the NWPs.

If you would like to comment on this determination or have questions about the permit, please email the Tribe’s Environmental Planner, Alex Scagliotti by emailing him at: ascagliotti@jamestowntribe.org. Questions and comments need to be sent before the end of the day on Friday, December 12th.