Background

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has issued an Incidental Take Permit under the Endangered Species Act to NiSource Inc. (now Columbia Pipeline Group), a natural gas storage and distribution company. The permit was issued in conjunction with the company’s comprehensive Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) to conserve dozens of endangered species while operating and maintaining its network of pipelines in 14 northeastern, midwestern and southeastern states. The permit allows "take" of 11 threatened and endangered species that may result from the company's routine construction, operation and maintenance activities within a one mile-wide corridor of their 15,562-mile pipeline network. NiSource’s HCP identifies how impacts to listed species from NiSource’s activities will be avoided and minimized and how any resulting “take” “take”
The term “take” means to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.

Learn more about “take” will be mitigated.  The Incidental Take Permit does not authorize the pipeline work itself, only the take of listed species.

Development

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service worked closely with other federal agencies and NiSource to develop the HCP and associated documents. The role of the Service was to provide technical guidance as NiSource prepared the HCP and to evaluate the HCP to decide whether to issue an Incidental Take Permit. In addition, it was our responsibility to evaluate the federal action of issuing the Incidental Take Permit under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

Because certain NiSource activities to be covered by the Incidental Take Permit would also require authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Forest Service, and/or the National Park Service, these agencies were brought in to the HCP development. The HCP participants determined it would be more practical, and would give a more complete picture of the extent of effects, to: 1) address the effects of all federal and non‐federal actions in one analysis and 2) develop a conservation package that would sufficiently address all effects while providing additional conservation that would contribute to the recovery of listed species. This resulted in the NiSource Habitat Conservation Plan, Incidental Take Permit, consultation document, and Environmental Impact Statement. The Service was the lead federal agency for the Environmental Impact Statement and the section 7 consultation, and the others served as cooperating agencies.

Draft versions of the HCP and Environmental Impact Statement were available for public review and comment for 150 days in 2011. Both documents were finalized in June 2013. In September 2013, we issued a consultation document, which included the biological opinion and incidental take statement, that addressed potential impacts to 89 listed, proposed, and candidate species that may occur within the Covered Lands. For the 47 species not analyzed in the HCP, the Service will address potential take programmatically, through future tiered section 7 consultations. Under the programmatic section 7 approach, the cooperating agencies will continue to review all future projects to determine if they may affect listed species or designated critical habitat. The Incidental Take Permit, Implementing Agreement and Record of Decision were issued on September 13, 2013. In 2015, the HCP was updated to permit take of northern long-eared bat.

Implementation

The NiSource HCP is being implemented effective January 1, 2014. The Service and NiSource developed consultation implementation guidance to help federal agencies fulfill their section 7 consultation requirements. NiSource also developed a Best Management Practices Guidebook that details all of the avoidance and minimization measures and BMPs required for each listed, proposed, or candidate species that may be affected by the HCP. The Service also provided a training webinar to assist with implementing the HCP. 

Mitigation

After all practicable steps have been taken to avoid and minimize take, Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act requires that all remaining take be mitigated.  Mitigation measures include preserving existing habitat, enhancement or restoration of degraded habitat, establishment of new habitat, reestablishment or augmentation of populations, changes in current land use practices, and in some very specific instances, funds dedicated to research needs.

NiSource’s HCP includes a landscape-level approach to mitigation. Developed for NiSource by The Conservation Fund, the landscape-level approach provides a method for identifying and evaluating mitigation opportunities within a planned network of natural areas, developed lands and other open spaces that are managed to conserve ecosystem values and functions and also to benefit human populations. The result of The Conservation Fund’s assessment is a framework to identify mitigation opportunities that provide the greatest benefit for the species.

HCP and Associated Documents

Habitat Conservation Plan

Cover, Executive Summary, and Table of Contents

Chapters 1 - 5
     Introduction
     Chapter 2 - Covered Lands and Covered Activities
     Chapter 3 - Physical and Biological Environmental Setting
     Chapter 4 - Species Analyzed in the MSHCP
     Chapter 5 - Conservation Strategy

Chapter 6 - Species Assessments, Impact Analysis, and Mitigation

Chapters 7 - 13
     Chapter 7 - Monitoring, Reporting, and Adaptive Management
     Chapter 8 - Funding Assurances
     Chapter 9 - Amendment Process
     Chapter 10 - Assurances
     Chapter 11 - Alternatives to Take
     Chapter 12 - List of Preparers
     Chapter 13 - References Cited

Amendment adding Northern long-eared bat
Amendment to Northern long-eared bat AMM 29 (Service proposal)
Amendment to Northern long-eared bat AMM 29 (Columbia's Response)

Appendix A - Annual Acreage Disturbance Estimates
Appendix B - NiSource Environmental Construction Standards
Appendix C - Covered Activities Photographs 
Appendix D - GIS Metadata
Appendix E - Conservation Lands Crossed by NiSource Facilities
Appendix F - Conservation Frameworks for the "Not Likely to Adversely Affect" Species
Appendix G - Take Species Maps
Appendix H - Implementation Agreement
Appendix I - NFWF Agreement
Appendix J - Horizontal Directional Drilling
Appendix K - Natural Gas Pipeline & Storage Permitting Processes
Appendix L - Survey and Other Protocols

     Appendix L1 to L14
          L1 Reserved
          L2 Indiana Bat Habitat Assessment Protocols
          L3 Determination of Potential Winter Habitat for Indiana Bats
          L4 Indiana Bat Survey Protocols
          L5 Service Guidelines for Bog Turtle Surveys April 2006
          L6 Bog Turtle Pre-construction Survey Protocol
          L7 Bog Turtle Recovery Plan - Appendix A
          L8 Karst Monitoring Protocols
          L9 Figure 6.2.3.3_2 Sinkhole Mitigation Procedures
          L10 Figure 6.2.3.3_3 Sinkhole Mitigation Procedures
          L11 Figure 6.2.3.3_4 Sinkhole Mitigation Procedures
          L12 Figure 6.2.3.3_5 Sinkhole Mitigation Procedures
          L13 WV Sinkhole Mitigation Guidance
          L14 Herbicide List for use in Madison Cave Isopod Habitat

     L15 - Mussel Survey Protocol
     L16 - Mussel Relocation Mark/Recapture Protocols
     L17, L18, and L19 - Sediment Transport Estimation Method, Disinfection Techniques, Riparian Restoration Standard
     L21 - Nashville Crayfish Survey Protocol
     L22, L23, and L24 - American Burying Beetle Protocols

Appendix M - Threats Analysis Tables
Appendix N - Mitigation Panel Charter
Appendix O - Information Planning and Consultation System
Appendix P - Easement/Acquisition Template

Incidental Take Permit

Incidental Take Permit (amended May 1, 2015)
Appendices to Incidental Take Permit

Biological Opinion

Biological Opinion
Appendices to Biological Opinion
Letter to Cooperating Federal Agencies

Amendment – Incorporating IPaC into the CPG MSHCP BO for Non-MSHCP species

NEPA

Final Environmental Impact Statement

Table of Contents, Executive Summary, and Chapters 1-2
     Chapter 1 - Introduction
     Chapter 2 - Description of Alternatives

Chapter 3 - Affected Environment

Chapters 4 - 9
     Chapter 4 - Environmental Consequences
     Chapter 5 - Cumulative Effects
     Chapter 6 - Consultation and Coordination
     Chapter 7 - List of Preparers
     Chapter 8 - References
     Chapter 9 - Acronyms and Abbreviations

Appendix A - Scoping Report and NOI
Appendix B - NiSource Covered Activities
Appendix C - FERC Plans and Procedures
Appendix D - Migratory Birds Information
Appendix E - HCP Species Information
Appendix F - Biological Assessment for the Non-HCP Listed Species
Appendix G - Summary of Public Comments

Environmental Assessment

Environmental Assessment for Amendment adding Northern long-eared bat
FONSI for Amendment adding Northern long-eared bat

Other Documents

Final Implementing Agreement for NiSource Habitat Conservation Plan
Record of Decision: Proposed Issuance of a Section 10(a)(1)(B) Incidental Take Permit to NiSource, Inc.
Statement of Findings for Amendment adding Northern long-eared bat
Federal Register Notice of Availability

NiSource Approach to Mitigation: Strategic Conservation Planning Using Green Infrastructure

Summary
Final Report
Decision Support Framework for Evaluating/Ranking Mitigation Sites
Network Design Methods
State Plan Review

Mitigation Site Report - Indiana Bat
Mitigation Site Report - Madison Cave Isopod
Mitigation Site Report - Mussels
Mitigation Site Report - Nashville Crayfish