ML25073A031
| ML25073A031 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Brunswick  |
| Issue date: | 05/28/2024 |
| From: | Reece K US Dept of Commerce, National Marine Fisheries Service |
| To: | Arlene B Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards |
| References | |
| Download: ML25073A031 (1) | |
Text
From:
Karla Reece - NOAA Federal To:
Briana Arlene Cc:
Caison, Eric; Patrick Opay - NOAA Federal; Stephen.Yodersmith@duke-energy.com
Subject:
[External_Sender] Re: Re: Re: RE: [EXTERNAL] RE: NMFS Sea Turtle Consultation Date:
Tuesday, May 28, 2024 2:22:42 PM Attachments:
image001.png image002.png I appreciate you filling in the gaps in my information. As I mentioned on our call today, the decision to reinitiate, or not, is that of the Action Agencies to make.
The original BO expired after 20 years, or in 2020, and exempted take has been exceeded, based on 3 greens per year being exceeded to 12. The reinitiation request in 2005 was deemed not necessary for the 20-year relicensing period that NRC was considering at that time, so while there was correspondence, a consultation was not completed.
This 2005 non-consultation seems to say the original BO is good for another 20 years from that date so it looks to me like reinitiation is likely in order in 2025, regardlessof any reinitiation triggers.
Let me know if you haveany other questions.
Karla Please email any questions or concerns for the most efficient response.
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Karla Reece-(she/her)
Section 7 Team Lead Interagency Cooperation Branch Protected Resources NOAA Fisheries l U.S. Department of Commerce Southeast Regional Office National Marine Fisheries Service email: karla.reece@noaa.gov Section 7 Guidance Webpage - UPDATED URL Updated Construction Conditions, (May 2021)
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On Tue, May 28, 2024 at 3:44PM Briana Arlene <briana.arlene@nrc.gov> wrote:
- Karla,
Thank you. Stephen and I were actually just looking at this today after our meeting this morning. NRC also reinitiated consultation 2005 to address the renewed operating license period (through 2034 and 2036). As a result of that consultation, NMFS determined:
This language seems to indicate that the applicability of the 2000 biological opinion was extended in 2005 to include the 20-year relicensing period that NRC was considering at that time. However, I was not part of that consultation, and the language is not fully clear. Ive included links below to the communications related to this consultation for your review/records.
Aug 9, 2005, NRC to NMFS, Request for consultation: ML052200648 Aug 9, 2005, NRC biological assessment: ML052220333 Sept 19, 2005, NMFS to NRC, Determination that reinitiated consultation is not required: ML060240452 Thanks again for taking the time to talk this morning!
Briana Briana S. Arlene Conservation Biologist & ESA Consultation Coordinator Environmental Center of Expertise Office of Materials Safety and Safeguards U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
briana.arlene@nrc.gov (301) 415-1042
From: Karla Reece - NOAA Federal <karla.reece@noaa.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2024 1:37 PM To: Briana Arlene <briana.arlene@nrc.gov>
Cc: Caison, Eric <Eric.Caison@duke-energy.com>; Patrick Opay - NOAA Federal
<patrick.opay@noaa.gov>; Stephen.Yodersmith@duke-energy.com
Subject:
[External_Sender] Re: Re: RE: [EXTERNAL] RE: NMFS Sea Turtle Consultation
Hi Briana, Following up after our conversation today. I just found the original BO for Brunswick (Attached) that was issued on
Jan 20, 2000. NMFS completed the original BO set for 20 years (stated on the first page of the transmittal letter), which means it has expired.
Aug 20, 2012. NMFS completed an NLAA consultation following the listing of Atlantic sturgeon.
There doesn'tseem to be a current consultation in place for the operations of the facility. Based on that, I encourage you to request a new consultation for the next 20 years, or some other time frame more consistent with licensing.
If you have any questions, pleaselet me know.
v/r Karla
Please email any questions or concerns for the most efficient response.
><((((º>'-`*.¸¸.><((((º>¸.*'-`*.¸><((((º>'-`*.¸¸..><((((º>
Karla Reece-(she/her)
Section 7 Team Lead
Interagency Cooperation Branch Protected Resources NOAA Fisheries l U.S. Department of Commerce Southeast Regional Office National Marine Fisheries Service email: karla.reece@noaa.gov
Section 7 Guidance Webpage - UPDATED URL Updated Construction Conditions, (May 2021)
This is a U.S. government email account. Your emails to this address may be reviewed or archived. Please do not send inappropriate material. Thank you.
On Mon, May 20, 2024 at 4:31PM Karla Reece - NOAA Federal <karla.reece@noaa.gov>
wrote:
Hi Briana,
My answers to your questions are in blue below.
Info we have obtained on causes of sea turtle mortalities that exceeded the Brunswick biological opinion ITS authorized take limits: Detail about take that has occured since the original consultation was completedshould be clearlydescribed in the Biological Assessment. This informationis critical in order to predict/quantify future species interactions.
Designating Duke Energy as a non-federal representative to prepare the biological assessment:The regs specifically say, "A Federal agency may designate a non-Federal representative to conduct informal consultation or prepare a biological assessment by giving written notice to the Director of such designation. If a permit or license applicant is involved and is not the designated non-Federal representative, then the applicant and Federal agency must agree on the choice of the designated non-Federal representative. If a biological assessment is
prepared by the designated non-Federal representative, the Federal agency shall furnish guidance and supervision and shall independently review and evaluate the scope and contents of the biological assessment. The ultimate responsibility for compliance with section 7 remains with the Federal agency."
However, because this will be a formal/LAA consultation, NRC needs to request the consultation with NMFS directly.
Making sure we have captured all relevant listed species and critical habitats to include in the biological assessment (i.e., new species listings, critical habitat designations, or DPS changes).To determine species that would be present in the project area, please visit our Section 7 Mapper which identifies consultation area recommendations for species and critical habitats across our region. This online mapping tool helps action agencies more accurately and efficiently determine the species, life stages, and habitats that may be affected by their proposed projects, resulting in enhanced, easily accessible guidance to action agencies and more accurate, consistent policy determinations for listed species and critical habitats. The Section 7 Mapper can be found at:https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/resource/map/southeast-region-esa-section-7-mapper Timeline for NRC to reinitiate consultation. We'll need to chat about this one, are you just intending to share your timelines? For your awareness, we currently receive more consultation requests than we can carry out and have a backlog. At present we are running about 8 weeks between receiving a consultation request and assigning it to staff. Under the ESA, we have 135 days to complete a biological opinion, beginning the date we have all information necessary to consult.
I am available to talk any time Friday (5/24) between 10am-3pm. Let me know if you have a freehour during that time frame and I will set up a video chat. Please also include email addresses for anyone else you want to be on the call.
Thank you, Karla
Please email any questions or concerns for the most efficient response.
><((((º>'-`*.¸¸.><((((º>¸.*'-`*.¸><((((º>'-`*.¸¸..><((((º>
Karla Reece-(she/her)
Section 7 Team Lead Interagency Cooperation Branch Protected Resources NOAA Fisheries l U.S. Department of Commerce Southeast Regional Office National Marine Fisheries Service email: karla.reece@noaa.gov
Section 7 Guidance Webpage - UPDATED URL Updated Construction Conditions, (May 2021)
This is a U.S. government email account. Your emails to this address may be reviewed or archived. Please do not send inappropriate material. Thank you.
On Mon, May 20, 2024 at 2:31PM Briana Arlene <briana.arlene@nrc.gov> wrote:
Hi Karla,
Would you have time this week or next to talk about the Section 7 consultation that well need to reinitiate for Brunswick?
Briefly, Id like to touch base about:
Info we have obtained on causes of sea turtle mortalities that exceeded the Brunswick biological opinion ITS authorized take limits Designating Duke Energy as a non-federal representative to prepare the biological assessment Making sure we have captured all relevant listed species and critical
habitats to include in the biological assessment (i.e., new species listings, critical habitat designations, or DPS changes)
Timeline for NRC to reinitiate consultation
This is all just preliminary, but as I imagine your office is busy, perhaps having an initial discussion now will save us time later so that NRC can send you a high-quality reinitiation request.
Thanks!
Briana Briana S. Arlene Conservation Biologist & ESA Consultation Coordinator Environmental Center of Expertise Office of Materials Safety and Safeguards U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
briana.arlene@nrc.gov (301) 415-1042
From: Karla Reece - NOAA Federal <karla.reece@noaa.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2024 1:20 PM To: Caison, Eric <Eric.Caison@duke-energy.com>
Cc: Briana Arlene <briana.arlene@nrc.gov>; Patrick Opay - NOAA Federal
<patrick.opay@noaa.gov>
Subject:
[External_Sender] Re: RE: [EXTERNAL] RE: NMFS Sea Turtle Consultation
- Hello,
Any requests for consultation should be sent to our consultation email account:nmfs.ser.esa.consultations@noaa.gov
When you request the reinitiation of your consultation, please include your previous NMFS tracking number and any other information that will assist in the reinitiation.
Let me know if you have any questions.
v/r Karla
Please email any questions or concerns for the most efficient response.
><((((º>'-`*.¸¸.><((((º>¸.*'-`*.¸><((((º>'-`*.¸¸..><((((º>
Karla Reece-(she/her)
Section 7 Team Lead Interagency Cooperation Branch Protected Resources NOAA Fisheries l U.S. Department of Commerce Southeast Regional Office National Marine Fisheries Service email: karla.reece@noaa.gov
Section 7 Guidance Webpage - UPDATED URL Updated Construction Conditions, (May 2021)
This is a U.S. government email account. Your emails to this address may be reviewed or archived. Please do not send inappropriate material. Thank you.
On Tue, May 14, 2024 at 2:05PM Caison, Eric <Eric.Caison@duke-energy.com>
wrote:
Hello Briana,
We completed our notification to NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office Protected Resources Division today for the turtles that we recovered from our intake canal between 04/15/24 and 04/28/24. Unfortunately, we do not have the necropsy reports from the North Carolina Sea Turtle Coordinator yet, so I was not able to supply the reports with the notification. I intend to send those reports to NOAA Fisheries when we receive them.
I spoke with Patrick Opay from NOAA Fisheries a little while ago and he said that Karla Reece would be the best point of contact for reinitiating consultation. They are both copied on this email.
Thank you,
Eric Caison l Lead EHS Professional l Brunswick Nuclear Plant l Duke Energy Progress, LLC 8470 River Rd. SE l Southport, NC 28461 l 910.832.2267 office l 910.617.9460 cell
From: Briana Arlene <briana.arlene@nrc.gov>
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2024 8:29 AM To: Caison, Eric <Eric.Caison@duke-energy.com>
Subject:
RE: RE: [EXTERNAL] RE: NMFS Sea Turtle Consultation
Hi Eric,
I reach out to Jennifer Schull as a first point of contact since I work with her on other projects in the southeast. She would likely not be the person that would handle Brunswick, though, as she supervises the southeasts coral reef branch.
Briana Briana S. Arlene Conservation Biologist & ESA Consultation Coordinator Environmental Center of Expertise Office of Materials Safety and Safeguards U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
briana.arlene@nrc.gov (301) 415-1042
From: Caison, Eric <Eric.Caison@duke-energy.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 9, 2024 1:51 PM To: Briana Arlene <briana.arlene@nrc.gov>
Subject:
[External_Sender] RE: [EXTERNAL] RE: NMFS Sea Turtle Consultation
Hello Briana,
Mr. Patrick Opay with NMFS reached out to me today to say that he had become aware of our site potentially exceeded the limit of incidental takes listed in our biological opinion and that we would need to initiate consultation with them. Do you recall who it was that you spoke with at NMFS so I can provide him with their name?
Thank you,
Eric Caison l Lead EHS Professional l Brunswick Nuclear Plant l Duke Energy Progress, LLC 8470 River Rd. SE l Southport, NC 28461 l 910.832.2267 office l 910.617.9460 cell
From: Briana Arlene <briana.arlene@nrc.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2024 3:16 PM To: Caison, Eric <Eric.Caison@duke-energy.com>
Subject:
[EXTERNAL] RE: NMFS Sea Turtle Consultation
- CAUTION! EXTERNAL SENDER *** STOP. ASSESS. VERIFY!! Were you expecting this email? Are grammar and spelling correct? Does the content make sense? Can you verify the sender? If suspicious report it, then do not click links, open attachments or enter your ID or password.
Hi Eric,
Thanks for the update! And apologies if this is a duplicative email. My Outlook crashed when I pushed send on my email to you earlier. Now I cant find the email in my Sent folder, so Im writing you again.
I did reach out to NMFS, just to touch base and let them know that NRC is aware of the incidental takes at Brunswick. I am waiting to hear back on who on their staff would potentially lead the consultation to coordinate any further.
Ill make sure to include you and other Duke folks in any substantive comments with NMFS, and youll definitely be included in any meetings!
Briana
Briana S. Arlene Conservation Biologist & ESA Consultation Coordinator Environmental Center of Expertise Office of Materials Safety and Safeguards U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
briana.arlene@nrc.gov (301) 415-1042
From: Caison, Eric <Eric.Caison@duke-energy.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2024 12:33 PM To: Briana Arlene <briana.arlene@nrc.gov>
Subject:
[External_Sender] NMFS Sea Turtle Consultation
Hello Briana,
Hope you are doing well. I wanted to touch base with you on some follow-ups from the meeting that we had last week regarding the recent sea turtle strandings in our plant cooling water intake canal.
We had received word early last week from Sarah Finn, one of the NCWRC Sea Turtle Biologists, that she was planning to pick up the deceased turtles from us for necropsy by the end of last week (week 16), but it turned out that she was unable to do so. Her current plan is to have them picked up by the end of next week (week 18) and begin the necropsies the day after pickup. She said that she could have the necropsy reports sent to us the same day that she is able to complete them.
I was wondering if you had begun discussions with NMFS yet, or were you planning to wait until you received the necropsy reports from us?
Thank you,
Eric Caison l Lead EHS Professional l Brunswick Nuclear Plant l Duke Energy Progress, LLC
8470 River Rd. SE l Southport, NC 28461 l 910.832.2267 office l 910.617.9460 cell