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Veterans continue to serve with Cincinnati Service Platoon

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CINCINNATI — With a couple of fleeting days of warmer temperatures amid a winter backdrop, one can’t help but think about spring gardens. For kids who attend Latonia’s Ninth District Elementary School, spring will bring a fresh bounty and a much-needed place to learn and relax thanks in part to a group of veterans.

“It’s really about spreading a little bit of joy, and they get a break from the classroom and get some fresh air,” Ben Basar said. “Enjoy the nice garden we’ve created and participate in it.”

Basar served in the Marine Corps and in his free time has joined the volunteer corps of The Mission Continues’ Cincinnati Service Platoon.

“That desire to continue serving doesn’t leave us when we take off the uniform,” said Nate Swope, founder of Cincinnati Service Platoon. “It’s something that we are as people.”

Swope said he felt a need to continue to give back to the community. The project at Ninth District Elementary School is the second project under the newly-formed platoon with a specific mission.

“This organization brings veterans and other volunteers together to continue serving and helping their communities in ways they can do,” Swope said.

Monica Gomez served in the military and said she has found the comradery she remembers from being in the service helping others as part of the platoon.

“I’d been wanting to do things with veterans and for the community, so it was a great opportunity for me to come out here,” Gomez said. “The reason I liked this is you can bring your families, and we know how important they are to us and how important they are to support what we do. It’s great they can come out here and do it with us.”

There are a number of community partners who’ve helped out on the project, and Swope said they’re always looking for community partners and volunteers for future projects.

“Our main focus is for our veterans to find new missions,” Swope said. “We’d like to find partners and people we can serve and organizations that can benefit from funding and volunteers and we can bring our volunteers and veterans in and help out.”

That said their next mission project is Saturday, Feb. 26 at Our Daily Bread Soup Kitchen and Social Center. Additional information and registration can be found on their website.

If you have a veteran story to tell in your community, email [email protected]. You also can join the Homefront Facebook group, follow Craig McKee on Facebook and find more Homefront stories here.

Army Corps Finalizes Modified and New Nationwide Permits, Including for Certain Hydropower Projects

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On December 27, 2021, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) issued a final rule reissuing 40 existing Nationwide Permits (NWPs) with modifications and issuing a new NWP for water reclamation and reuse facilities. The 40 existing NWPs that the Corps reissued include NWP 17, which authorizes the discharge of dredged or fill material associated with certain small hydroelectric projects.

The Corps’ NWP program authorizes certain categories of dredging and filling activities that will have only a minimal environmental effect on jurisdictional waters and wetlands. Pursuant to section 404 of the Clean Water Act and section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, the Corps issues NWPs to authorize groups of similar categories of activities under a “general permit,” thereby eliminating the need for individual project proponents to undertake an extensive environmental permitting process.

NWPs automatically expire every five years and the Corps re-issues them with new or revised conditions. In September 2020, the Corps issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) to replace the 2017 NWPs, and in January 2021, the Corps issued a final rule revising and reissuing 12 of the 52 NWPs that were scheduled to expire in March 2022 and issuing four new NWPs that covered certain utility line activities, including work related to the construction, maintenance, and removal of oil and natural gas pipelines.

On December 27, 2021, the Corps issued a second final rule, pursuant to which it reissued the 40 remaining NWPs not covered by the January 2021 rule. Among other things, the final rule modified NWP 17, which authorizes the discharge of dredged or fill material associated with certain small, FERC-licensed hydropower projects. In response to the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013, the final rule changes the definition of “small hydroelectric power project” from 5,000 kilowatts (kW) to 10,000 kW, thereby expanding the universe of projects covered by the NWP. The final rule also made changes to other NWPs, including those covering bank stabilization, certain linear transportation projects, aquatic habitat restoration, boat ramps, coal remining activities, and the removal of low-head dams. Finally, the Corps issued a new NWP 59, which authorizes the discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States for certain construction activities associated with water reclamation and reuse facilities.

The final rule accelerated the expiration date of the January 2017 NWPs to February 24, 2022, and the new and modified NWPs will become effective on February 25, 2022. For developers currently covered by an existing NWP, the final rule provides that “if the previously verified activity continues to qualify for NWP authorization under any of the 40 existing NWPs reissued in this final rule, that verification letter continues to be in effect until March 18, 2022, unless the district engineer specified a different expiration date in the NWP verification letter.”

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