Notice2026-09271
Endangered Species; File No. 29773
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
May 11, 2026
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Abstract
NMFS received a request from Virginia Electric and Power Company, doing business as Dominion Virginia Power (Dominion) for renewal of an incidental take permit, pursuant to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), for activities associated with the otherwise lawful continued operation and maintenance of the Dominion Chesterfield Power Station in Chesterfield, VA. We are publishing this notice to inform the public that we are considering renewing the permit for a period of 10 years to authorize additional take of Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus) from the Chesapeake Bay Distinct Population Segment.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 90 (Monday, May 11, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 90 (Monday, May 11, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25525-25526]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-09271]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[RTID 0648-XF734]
Endangered Species; File No. 29773
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability; request for public comments.
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SUMMARY: NMFS received a request from Virginia Electric and Power
Company, doing business as Dominion Virginia Power (Dominion) for
renewal of an incidental take permit, pursuant to the Endangered
Species Act (ESA), for activities associated with the otherwise lawful
continued operation and maintenance of the Dominion Chesterfield Power
Station in Chesterfield, VA. We are publishing this notice to inform
the public that we are considering renewing the permit for a period of
10 years to authorize additional take of Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser
oxyrinchus oxyrinchus) from the Chesapeake Bay Distinct Population
Segment.
DATES: Comments must be received no later than June 10, 2026.
ADDRESSES: The application is available for download and review at
<a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/endangered-species-conservation/incidental-take-permits">https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/endangered-species-conservation/incidental-take-permits</a> and at <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>.
The application is also available upon request (see FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT).
You may submit comments, identified by NOAA-NMFS-2026-1420, by
either of the following methods.
<bullet> Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic public
comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> and type NOAA-NMFS-2026-1420 in the Search box.
Click the ``Comment'' icon, complete the required fields, and enter or
attach your comments.
Instructions: Comments sent by any other method, to any other
address or individual, or received after the end of the specified
period, may not be considered by NMFS. All comments received are a part
of the public record and will generally be posted for public viewing on
<a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a> without change. All personal identifying
information (e.g., name, address, etc.) confidential business
information, or otherwise sensitive or protected information submitted
voluntarily by the sender is publicly accessible. NMFS will accept
anonymous comments (enter ``N/A'' in the required fields if you wish to
remain anonymous).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lynn Lankshear,
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#f8b4819696d6b49996938b909d998ab896979999d69f978e"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="9cd0e5f2f2b2d0fdf2f7eff4f9fdeedcf2f3fdfdb2fbf3ea">[email protected]</span></a> or (978) 282-8473.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Dominion is requesting a renewal of an
Incidental Take Permit (previously Permit No. 21516-02) for
authorization to incidentally take up to 109,490 sturgeon larvae and up
to 183,630 non-viable sturgeon eggs over 10 years because of the
otherwise lawful operation of the Chesterfield Power Station in
Virginia. Dominion is proposing to monitor the take of sturgeon eggs
and larvae as well as to minimize or mitigate, to the maximum extent
practicable, the impacts of incidental take to the Chesapeake Bay
Distinct Population Segment (DPS) of Atlantic sturgeon. Take of adult
sturgeon is not expected
[[Page 25526]]
because of the changes that Dominion previously made to the intake
guards (85 FR 36563; June 17, 2020). Dominion will, however, continue
to monitor for the take of adult sturgeon.
Background
The Chesterfield Power Station is a gas-fueled power station in
Chesterfield, Virginia in the upper tidal portion of the James River.
Two sturgeon larvae were entrained and one adult, released alive, was
impinged at Chesterfield Power Station in 2015. Section 9 of the ESA
and Federal regulations prohibit the ``take'' of Atlantic sturgeon
belonging to the Chesapeake Bay DPS. The ESA defines ``take'' to mean
harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or
collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct. Under section
10(a)(1)(B) of the ESA, we may issue permits to authorize incidental
take. ``Incidental take'' is defined by the ESA as take that is
incidental to, and not the purpose of, carrying out an otherwise lawful
activity.
We issued Dominion's first incidental take permit for take at the
Chesterfield Power Station (Permit No. 21516) on December 10, 2020. The
permit authorized the incidental take of up to 54,745 Atlantic sturgeon
larvae by entrainment based on an estimated annual take of 10,949
larvae (86 FR 1945). We completed an Environmental Assessment (EA)
under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and made a finding
that there would be no significant impacts (NMFS 2020). The permit was
modified and reissued in 2023 because of operational changes to the
Chesterfield Power Station, including retirement of some of the power
generating units (88 FR 82324; November 24, 2023). The permit was
further modified and re-issued in 2025 to include authorization for the
incidental take of non-viable Atlantic sturgeon eggs at Chesterfield
Power Station (90 FR 51663; November 18, 2025). We completed a
Supplemental Information Report for each of the permit modifications in
which we described why there was no need to supplement the 2020 EA and
finding of no significant impacts (NMFS 2023; NMFS 2025).
Dominion's incidental take permit, Permit No. 21516-02, expired as
of December 30, 2025. Dominion anticipates that entrainment of sturgeon
eggs and larvae will continue to occur at Chesterfield Power Station
each fall because water withdrawals from the James River are necessary
for operation of the remaining power generating units. Dominion applied
for a renewal of their incidental take permit on December 10, 2025,
which, if approved by NMFS, will result in issuance of a new permit.
Consistent with 50 CFR 222.304, Permit No. 21516-02 remains in effect,
and Dominion may continue activities authorized under that permit,
during NMFS's consideration of Dominion's timely renewal application,
which included a statement of changes submitted more than 30 days prior
to the permit's expiration.
Conservation Plan
Dominion's proposed Conservation Plan describes the measures for
monitoring the take of Atlantic sturgeon at the Chesterfield Power
Station, as well as for minimizing or mitigating, to the maximum extent
practicable, the impacts of the taking.
To monitor the take, Dominion will continue the measures that it
has carried out under the previous permit and its modifications,
including conducting dive inspections of the intake guards before the
Atlantic sturgeon fall spawning season and carrying out entrainment
sampling during the fall spawning season.
To minimize or mitigate for the impacts of the taking, Dominion
proposes to continue and advance three studies. Dominion would continue
to support the Sturgeon Movement Research Study, utilizing the real-
time data to minimize the entrainment of sturgeon eggs and larvae at
Chesterfield Power Station. For example, real-time data is used to
schedule maintenance outages when sturgeon eggs and larvae are likely
in the vicinity of the Chesterfield Power Station cooling water intake
structures. Dominion would also continue to support the continuation of
the Genetic Relationship Research Study, including preservation of the
genetic material and the genetic data from entrained sturgeon eggs and
larvae, to inform management of the Chesapeake Bay DPS of Atlantic
sturgeon (e.g., minimum counts of the number of females that spawned in
each spawning season). Dominion would continue to carry out the Digital
Holography Entrainment Pilot Study, as described in their Conservation
Plan, to inform alternative, non-lethal, methods that could improve
data collection and estimation of the number of Atlantic sturgeon eggs
and larvae that are entrained annually at Chesterfield Power Station.
Dominion's proposed Conservation Plan includes potential changes to
its Virginia Pollution Discharge Elimination System (VPDES) permit as a
``Changed Circumstance.'' Permit No. 21516 was issued for 5 years, in
part to prevent the preclusion of operational changes at Chesterfield
Power Station that might have been required for Dominion to meet the
Best Technology Available standard of any future VPDES permit. Dominion
anticipated that the VPDES permit would be issued during that 5-year
period (i.e., 2020-2025). However, it was not issued and Dominion's
VPDES permit is still pending. Dominion is requesting a new 10-year
incidental take permit based on the additional 5 years of data that
improve estimates of sturgeon take and provide a more robust basis for
evaluating effects over the requested permit duration. This longer
permit duration, if approved, will not preclude changes to the
Conservation Plan that may be necessary for Dominion to be in
compliance with the requirements of a new VPDES permit because Dominion
has included this possibility in the ``Changed Circumstances'' of the
proposed Conservation Plan.
National Environmental Policy Act
In compliance with NEPA, we analyzed the impacts of the proposed
issuance of an incidental take permit and the Conservation Plan. We
prepared a draft Supplemental Information Report that describes why
there is no need to supplement the 2020 EA of the previous incidental
take permit and the finding of no significant impacts. The draft
Supplemental Information Report evaluates whether the extended permit
duration, updated take estimates, and additional information constitute
significant new circumstances or information requiring supplementation
under 40 CFR 1502.9(d). We have made the draft Supplemental Information
Report available for public inspection online (see ADDRESSES).
We will also evaluate whether issuance of the permit would comply
with section 7 of the ESA by conducting an intra-Service section 7
consultation. We will use the results of this consultation, in
combination with the above findings, in our final analysis. If the
requirements are met, we will issue the modified permit to the
applicant.
We will publish a record of our final action in the Federal
Register.
Authority: This notice is provided pursuant to section 10(c) of the
ESA (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) and NEPA regulations (40 CFR 1506.6).
Dated: May 6, 2026.
Michael Pentony,
Regional Administrator, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office,
National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2026-09271 Filed 5-8-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P
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