Information about the proposed Nationwide Army Corps of Engineers permits for shellfish:

* Acrobat Reader required

Here is a link to the relevant pages of the Federal Register Notice* describing the proposed NWP D for shellfish aquaculture. Similarly, this is a link to the pages from the Register Notice for NWP 27 dealing with shellfish restoration.*

The Draft Decision Document* contains supporting information used to by the Corps in formulating NWP D. The meat of the discussion starts on page 12, and includes the strange, false, and grammatically incorrect statement on page 18 that: “Commercial shellfish aquaculture activities may have adverse effects on water quality. Large populations of the species raised through commercial shellfish activities can increase in nutrients and other and pollutants in the water.”

The summary of NWP D was put together by the PCSGA and puts the relevant issues in outline form. It also includes a listing of the general conditions contained in the general NWP that are pertinent to shellfish, including General Condition 27 that has the information that needs to be included in a Preconstruction Notification (PCN).

The PCSGA issue brief was done in early 2004 and contains a good description of the permitting problem the Coast Oyster Company encountered in Humboldt Bay, California. This is one of the issues that led to the development of the new Nationwide Permits proposed by the Corps. Coast Oyster now has a permit in place on less acreage than before, but the discussion in this issue brief is still relevant.

The “model” comments that ECSGA put together and distributed on the ECSGA listserve on November 19th can be used by members, associates and friends to tailor company and individual comments to the Corps.

ECSGA Final comments November 27, 2006.