EP 1165-2-1
30 Jul 99
communities along with the relationships to their physical conditions
represents a greater recognition and appreciation of complex natural
ecosystems. Perhaps equally or more important to our growing
knowledge of ecosystems, is how our activities have and will
potentially impact these resources in the future. Today, the
sustainability of many fish and wildlife resources are threatened on
numerous fronts ranging from unwise land use and development to
contamination from pollutants. There are opportunities within the
Corps Works Program that should be recognized and alternative
solutions examined in the development of new and the rehabilitation of
older water resources projects using the principals of ecosystem
restoration and protection described above in paragraphs 19-2 through
19-6 and within the most recent guidance on ecosystem restoration.
Additionally, efforts undertaken in implementing the Fish and Wildlife
Coordination Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act,
discussed below, and the environmental provisions of several WRDAs,
discussed above in paragraph 19-8, support the Corps ecosystem
restoration and protection goals and ultimately the fish and wildlife
resources of the nation.
19-17. Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (FWCA) of 1958 (Public Law
85-624; 16 U.S.C. 661-666). The FWCA directs that equal consideration
be given to fish and wildlife resources and that measures to conserve
these resources are incorporated, along with other project features,
into water resources development projects. Further, the Act requires
the Corps to give full consideration to the recommendations, including
those for mitigation, of the USFWS, the NMFS and those of the
appropriate state agencies. Funds are transferred to the USFWS in
accordance with a 1982 Transfer Funding Agreement with the Department
of the Interior, which requires a coordination act report be developed
and included in any feasibility study of a proposed water resources
project with the potential to impact fish and wildlife resources. The
FWCA, in Section 662(h), exempts new impoundments of less than ten
surface acres or land management and use activities carried out by
Federal agencies on Federal lands from its provisions. Each of the
important provisions of the FWCA are summarized below.
a. Section 661 provides, in part, that fish and wildlife
conservation shall receive equal consideration with other project
purposes and be coordinated with other features of water resources
development programs through effective planning, development,
maintenance and coordination of fish and wildlife conservation and
rehabilitation features.
b. Section 662 describes the compliance responsibilities of
Federal agencies, with the exception, in subsection 662(g), that
projects or separable project units that had obligated sixty percent
of their estimated construction costs, as of 12 August 1958, are
exempt from the requirements of the FWCA.
(1) Subsection 662(a) provides that whenever the waters of
any stream or other body of water are proposed to be impounded,
diverted, the channel deepened, or otherwise controlled or modified,
including the issuance of permits to conduct such a modification, the
Corps shall consult with the USFWS and/or the NMFS as appropriate, and
the agency administering the fish and wildlife resources of the state.
This consultation shall consider conservation of fish and wildlife
resources with the view of preventing loss of and damages to such
resources as well as providing for their development and improvement
in connection with such water resources development. Additionally,
19-10
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