Appendix E - Wetland and Stream Screenings Guidance.pdf

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APPENDIX E: WETLAND AND STREAM SCREENINGS

GUIDANCE

I. INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE

Respondents must adhere to only the Desktop Screening requirements contained herein when performing a required wetland and stream screening for Proposals to the Taconic Developmental Center RFP.

Additional requirements will be required upon conditional designation.

Collectively, the approximation of wetland and waterbody resources conducted via the desktop and field screening will serve to identify areas of potential impacts so that preliminary measures to avoid and minimize wetland impacts can be identified, evaluated, and implemented. This will assist Respondents and ESD to ensure that the proposed Projects are feasible given the development limitations on and near wetlands and waterbodies. The field effort does not need to be comprised of all components associated with a full wetlands and waterbody delineation, and should serve as a field-verified approximation of the wetlands and waterbodies identified via the desktop screening.

II. DESKTOP SCREENING

The Respondents shall conduct a desktop review of available online data sources and maps of wetlands and waterways to identify areas within the proposed project site that likely have wetlands or waterbodies.

At a minimum, the Respondent will utilize available on-line data sources including:

• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) Environmental Resource Mapper wetland inventory;

• United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) for federal wetlands;

• United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Web Soil Survey maps.

Respondents are encouraged to use other available data to support this task, including but not limited to, the most currently available aerial imagery, LIDAR, topographic field survey, or other suitable data to approximate the boundaries. The Respondent shall specify the source(s) of data used for this task.

III. FIELD EFFORT

Subsequent to ESD selecting the Designated Developer, a physical (i.e., not remote) site reconnaissance field effort on all parcels included within the Proposal will be required. Respondents must obtain permission through ESD to access the site for these purposes, which will be facilitated through an access agreement (or equivalent) between the State and the Respondent. This field effort is required to ground truth information gathered during the desktop review and approximate the wetland and waterway boundaries.

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The field effort shall involve preliminary identification and general description of wetland and water resources, spot checking of soils, shallow hydrography and vegetation at selected locations, apparent functional status, and ground-truthing of various color tones and corresponding ecotones on aerial photographs and maps - thereby following the general guidance within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) 1987 Wetland Delineation Manual and the applicable version of the 2012 Regional Supplement to the Corps of Engineers Wetland Delineation Manual and the 1995 New York State Freshwater Wetlands Delineation Manual. The field effort should be a presence confirmation of currently mapped NYSDEC or NWI wetland and an investigation of unmapped wetlands on parcels included within the Site.

The following information is offered to assist complying with this task. This reconnaissance-level screening effort does not require features to be marked in the field (i.e., flagging tape) or the preparation of USACE Wetland/Stream Data Forms.

A. Wetland Screening Requirements

• If the Respondent confirms the field conditions and mapped boundaries are consistent, no GIS datapoints are required and these wetlands can be represented as mapped.

• Areas where either the wetland boundary is extended, or, if spot checking of a soils and lack of hydric soil and vegetation indicate mapped boundaries may vary from actual field conditions, the Respondent shall take a point every approximately 150-feet to estimate anticipated boundary changes in either scenario.

• For non-mapped wetlands that are within 500-feet of other wetlands or waterbodies that may have hydrogeological connections to existing mapped wetlands or waterbodies, boundary points shall be taken every 150-ft to provide an approximate wetland boundary.

• For non-mapped wetlands that are not within 500-feet of wetlands or waterbodies, that do not have apparent hydrogeological connections to other wetlands waterbodies, boundary points may be taken every 150-feet to provide an approximate wetland boundary, as practicable given the size of the wetland

• For non-mapped wetlands over 12.5-acres, the Respondent may use aerial imagery, LIDAR, topographic field survey, or other suitable data to approximate the boundaries, and shall specify the data used, to aid the site reconnaissance field effort.

B. Waterbody Screening Requirements

• For mapped waterbodies, if field conditions confirm presence, waterbodies can be presented as mapped in currently available data.

• For unmapped waterbodies, the Respondent should include data points as practicable, at 150-feet intervals.

• For mapped waterbodies that are not found in the field, or waterbody boundary adjustments, the

Respondent shall include data points at 150-feet intervals, as practicable, indicating no waterbody or stream was identified.

Following the field effort, the Respondent will prepare a “Preliminary Wetlands and Waterbodies Report” that summarizes the field effort and any wetlands, streams, or relatively permanent waterbodies (RPWs)/ditches, etc. identified onsite. This report should include a map of the extents of the proposed Project, the parcel boundaries included in the Site, approximate areas screened in the field effort, the approximate boundaries of wetlands and waterways, supported by photographic documentation, in particular, field conditions, soils of wetland boundary adjustments areas, and Geographic Information https://www.lrh.usace.army.mil/Portals/38/docs/USACE%2087%20Wetland%20Delineation%20Manual.pdf https://www.lrh.usace.army.mil/Portals/38/docs/USACE%2087%20Wetland%20Delineation%20Manual.pdf https://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Regulatory-Program-and-Permits/reg_supp/ https://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Regulatory-Program-and-Permits/reg_supp/

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System (GIS) shapefiles of the approximate boundaries including wetland or other waterbody boundary adjustment areas.

Additionally, the Respondent shall provide resumes of the lead wetland scientist(s) who performed the screening to ESD as part of this report.

IV. IMPACT ESTIMATION

Agency verifications are not requested, as these should be based on a formal delineation and not reconnaissance-level screening; however, Respondents are encouraged to use best-professional-judgement to offer a forecast of likely or presumed jurisdictional statuses (both state and federal) of all features documented during the screening. It is understood that presumed jurisdictional statuses are non-binding and being provided to assist with planning purposes only.

A map depicting the proposed Project overlaid with the boundaries of all screened features should be provided to clearly identify where jurisdictional impacts, such that might require state or federal permitting and/or mitigation, may occur within the design.

Anticipated steps for addressing permitting and mitigation should be summarized in the Respondent’s Permit Plan.

IV. IMPACT ESTIMATION