(a) Before the Service will issue or renew a right-of-way permit, the applicant must provide a final survey plat and legal description that shows and describes the right-of-way in such detail that the Service can accurately locate the right-of-way on the ground.
(b) Survey plats and legal descriptions of the right-of-way area must be stamped and signed by a licensed professional land surveyor or other professional licensed or authorized by the State to carry out land-surveying activities.
(1) Survey plats must meet the following standards:
(i) Survey plats must be geodetically referenced to the current State or national datum. In some cases, new geodetic control points will need to be set within or near the right-of-way area.
(ii) Survey plats must show ties to the monuments marking the boundaries of the Service-owned land that the right-of-way would affect, or from which those boundaries are calculated. In cases such as road construction that involve allowing full control of the right-of-way area, a boundary survey is required.
(iii) The points where the right-of-way enters and leaves Service land must be annotated on the survey with distance ties to the nearest boundary monuments.
(iv) For a linear strip right-of-way, the courses and distances of the center line and the width of the right-of-way on each side of the center line must be annotated.
(v) If the right-of-way or site is located wholly within Service land, a minimum of two ties to boundary corners or geodetic control points that can be readily recovered must be shown.
(vi) Survey plats must show the existing or proposed facilities in sufficient detail that an average person can determine the nature and extent of the proposed use.
(vii) Survey plats must include all uses of Service-managed land required as part of the right-of-way, including access roads.
(viii) Survey plats must show the location of any other right-of-way areas in the vicinity.
(ix) Survey plats must show major natural or cultural features such as roads, rivers, fences, etc., required for orientation and intelligent interpretation.
(x) The acreage contained within the right-of-way area must be shown.
(xi) Letter-sized plats are preferred, but larger format plats, such as the right-of-way plan sets prepared for highway and utility projects, are acceptable if they meet the other requirements.
(xii) A digital version of the plat in AutoCAD, ArcGIS, or similar format must be submitted along with a signed paper or document prepared in Adobe Acrobat or similar process.
(2) The legal description must:
(i) Be in metes-and-bounds, aliquot parts, or linear strip format;
(ii) Conform to and reference the survey plat;
(iii) Be tied to the controlling monuments shown on the plat;
(iv) Reference the geodetic coordinates of the point of beginning or point of commencement, and have a clearly documented basis of bearing; and
(v) For linear corridor projects, use a “strip description” format, based on a geometrically defined centerline. For example: “All that portion of [land unit description] lying within the following described strip of land.”
(c) A licensed Service land surveyor may waive the requirement of a survey plat for a proposed right-of-way in a remote location if they determine that the GPS coordinates and supporting location information submitted by the applicant for inclusion in the right-of-way permit are adequate to locate the proposed right-of-way with minimal risk to the United States.