Shared Vision Planning's Application to Regulatory Review of Water Supply Projects

On August 1, 2007, the "Shared Vision Planning's Application to Regulatory Review of Water Supply Projects" workshop was held. Participants investigated how Shared Vision Planning could be used within the Regulatory 404 process through case study presentations and discussion. The growing importance of water supply projects in the Corps (from a regulatory perspective) was reviewed. The workshop stressed IWR's desire to bring water supply as a regulatory issue of national concern to Corps senior leaders.

This first gathering of Corps regulators experienced with water supply permit applications focused on whether Shared Vision Planning could actually assist in a 404 permit review. During the presentations and subsequent discussion, it became clear that Shared Vision Planning as a collaborative process can aid in permit reviews by opening the review to a greater number of vested stakeholders. At the end of the day, the general consensus was that SVP would have the greatest value to the Regulatory community if incorporated into the pre-application process to determine its applicability to a particular project or if used for portions of the 404 / NEPA review. The many benefits of doing such included improving predictability with respect to issue identification and reaction to impacts from the Corps and other Federal Agencies; improving issue resolution; and reducing controversy during the process and at the presentation of the permit decision. The group decided that observing Shared Vision Planning in action on another project would be of great value to expanding its use through the Regulatory program. The most likely project would be Cache la Poudre, being implemented on some portions of the regulatory review.

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Shared Vision Planning Workshop Summary  (pdf, 40 KB)