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| PA Category |
State |
| Endangered Species |
WA |
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| PA Title |
| Programmatic Biological Assessment for the Washington State Department of Transportation Eastern Washington Regions Working Document - USFWS Jurisdiction |
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| PA Overview |
The purpose of the Programmatic Biological Assessment (PBA) is to strealimine the Endangered Species Act Section 7 consultation process and to provide uniform and consistent guidance for Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) biology staff (e.g., on "no effect" determinations, etc.).
The PBA is a comprehensive document that addresses impacts to all of the listed threatened and endangered species in eastern Washington for nine common groups of activities. The nine groups of activities include the following: pavement preservation; slide abatement and repair; bank stabilization and flood damage repair; bridge repair, retrofit, replacement and maintenance; mobility improvement program; safety improvement; facilities preservation and construction; environmental retrofit and enhancement; and drainage system maintenance and repair. Impacts are determined by number of individual species (e.g., bull trout), acres of habitat or impervious surface, or number of individual trees (e.g., suitable for nesting activites of marbled murrelet or northern spotted owl). The PBA includes both a Biological Assessment (BA) and Biological Opinion (BO).
WSDOT staff measure PBA success as the number of projects that can use programmatic, and the percentage of overall workload for regions covered by PBA (70% of informal Section 7 consultation for those regions in 2007). |
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| Signatories |
US Fish and Wildlife Service
Federal Highway Administration
Washington Department of Transportation |
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| Date of Original PA |
Date of Latest PA |
Expiration Date |
| 2004 |
03/2007 |
11/2008 |
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| Renewal Provisions/Process |
The PBA was initially submitted to USFWS in May 2004. The document was reviewed, formal consultation occurred, and then the BO was issued. The PBA is called a "working document" as it is revised each time a species or critical habitat is listed or delisted. In March 2007, the PBA was amended to include new species listings and also new critical habitat listings.
Although a renewal process is not officially incorporated into the PBA, the document will be renewed when it expires in 2008.
Each informal or formal consultation is individually reviewed and approved, and then the whole process is reviewed at the annual meeting. |
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| Geographic Coverage Display |
| This PBA covers projects in the three eastern Washington regions. |
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| Applicability |
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The PBA covers projects in eastern Washington where a listed species under USFWS jurisdiction may be impacted. Although the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is not an official signatory, WSDOT can use the PBA to cover projects who's only federal nexus is the USACE. The PBA can not be used on tribal lands or on those lands that are covered with a Habitat Conservation Plan. If a project meets the intent but not the exact conditions, the PBA framework allows the flexibility to contact the USFWS biologist for their approval to utilize the programmatic agreement.
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| Key Attributes |
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The PBA covers all listed species under USFWS jurisdiction in half the state of Washington, which covers the three eastern Washington regions (North Central, South Central, and Eastern). The document includes provisions for a shortened review time: informal consultation is reduced from 30 days to 15 days and formal consultation is reduced from 135 days to 90 days. The PBA includes prenegotiated "effect" determinations, based on standards that have been agreed upon by the signatory parties.
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| Resulting Conservation |
| The PBA provides for standard measures to be used for impacts to federal threatened or endangered (TE) species. |
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| Comments on Development/Use of PA |
| The PBA was time intensive to set up and to maintain, since many species are involved and the document needs to be revisited each time a species or critical habitat is listed or delisted. Although the working relationships between the agencies was good prior to the creation of the PBA, the programmatic helps with both USFWS and WSDOT workload issues and allows for more time to be spent on projects with greater impacts.
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| Estimated # of Projects Served or Processed Under
Agreement (per year) |
| Up to 100 projects are processed each year under this agreement. |
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| Contacts |
Marion Carey (Primary Contact)
Washington DOT
Environmental Services Office
Fish and Wildlife Program Manager
360-705-7404
CareyM@wsdot.wa.gov
Sharon Lov
Environmental Program Manager
FHWA
360-753-9558
sharon.lov@fhwa.dot.gov
Bob Newman
WashDOT Transportation Liaison
USFWS
509-893-8017
bob_newman@fws.gov
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