Staff from the US Army Corps of Engineers made a presentation to the West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas (WVONGA) Environmental Committee last week on the subject of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Role in Oil and Gas Drilling Activities. It was a very useful summary of the Corps' role in permitting stream crossings and all other oil and gas activities that occur in jurisdictional waters.
At the meeting we were given a nice compilation of the Nationwide Permits in West Virginia. They set out the Nationwide Permits themselves, the permit-specific Regional Corps of Engineers conditions, if any, and the permit-specific state 401 certification conditions, if any. In addition, there are the West Virginia 401 certification requirements that apply to all the nationwide permits.
For those wanting to learn more about nationwide permits, there is a reasonably good explanation in the February 16, 2011 Federal Register notice. The nationwide permits expire in March of 2012, and the Corps already began soliciting comments on how they should be changed. In order to give time for commenting and for the Corps to prepare a response to comments, the Corps is expected to propose the new nationwide permits soon, perhaps this week.
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