# Nationwide Permit A Nationwide Permit (NWP) is a general permit issued by the [[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]] authorizing categories of activity that discharge dredged or fill material into waters of the United States under Section 404 of the federal Clean Water Act, where the impacts are minimal. Larger or more sensitive activities require the developer to submit a **Pre-Construction Notification (PCN)** to the Corps for verification before proceeding. ## How it appears in the corpus The AVAIO "Project Leo" data center must place fill at **three roadway crossings of streams** in the Fish Creek watershed to build its internal road ("Digital Drive"). [[Stantec]], for AVAIO, submitted a Pre-Construction Notification to the [[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]] Little Rock District for two Nationwide Permits — **NWP 14 (Linear Transportation Projects)** and **NWP 39 (Commercial and Institutional Developments)** — under USACE file SWL-2025-00064 ([[Project Leo Engineering and Environmental Permits]]). The filing reports a permanent impact of about 0.138 acre of jurisdictional streams and proposes no compensatory mitigation. Obtaining "all permitting required by the USACE for the road and utility crossings shown across jurisdictional waters of the United States" was an explicit condition of Pulaski County's site plan approval ([[AVAIO Project Leo Site Plan and County Review]]). The underlying jurisdictional delineation — [[Stantec]]'s **Wetland & Waterbody Delineation Report** (June 2024, proj. 235710348; text-extracted 2026-06-03) — mapped roughly **13,461 linear feet (3.44 acres) of jurisdictional RPW streams** plus PEM/PFO wetlands across the site, under the post-*Sackett* "waters of the United States" test; the ~0.138-acre permanent stream impact proposed at the crossings is a small fraction of that delineated total (see [[AVAIO Project Leo Large Site-Plan Package]]). ## Stakeholders The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issues and verifies the permits; the developer and its environmental consultant prepare the PCN; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state historic preservation office are consulted on endangered species and cultural resources. Section 401 water-quality certification involves the state environmental agency. ## Timeline - **2025-02-19** — USACE pre-application meeting for Project Leo. - **2025-12-05** — Stantec submits the Pre-Construction Notification supplemental information (USACE file SWL-2025-00064). ## Notes The Nationwide Permit process governs only the construction impact to streams. It is distinct from the construction-stormwater permit (NPDES ARR150000) and from any operational water-supply or wastewater permitting — none of which appears in the Project Leo county file. **Federal framework (Tier 2, added 2026-06-04).** The NWP program operates under the Corps' current reissuance, published at [Reissuance and Modification of Nationwide Permits, FR-2026-01-08 (RIN 0710-AB56), Tier 2](../../web%20archive/2026-06-04/www.govinfo.gov/fr-2026-01-08-nationwide-permits-reissuance.md) (superseding the 2021-01-13 and 2021-12-27 reissuances), and is codified at 33 C.F.R. Part 330. NWP 14 and NWP 39 — the two permits [[Stantec]] invoked for Project Leo under USACE file SWL-2025-00064 — are issued under this framework. The **site-specific USACE verification letter for SWL-2025-00064 is not published in the Federal Register**; it remains a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Little Rock District / FOIA item, and the Project Leo operational cooling-water source remains unnamed in the federal package (see [[Identifying the Unnamed Cooling-Water Data Centers]]).