This is a NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD a Cooperative Agreement between the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) for the purpose of continuing mussel propagation and restoration activities within the Clinch River watershed.

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activities are being carried out as required by the consent decree that was entered with the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia on April 7, 2003, to address natural resource damages resulting from a 1998 chemical spill.

The mussel propagation and restoration activities are described within the publicly reviewed Restoration Plan/Environmental Assessment for the Certus Chemical Spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment (Plan).

The Plan specifically identifies the Virginia Tech mussel propagation facilities to implement the restoration, as they uniquely qualified to accomplish mussel restoration tasks and have decades of experience and knowledge of the Clinch River mussel fauna assemblage.

The activities funded via the cooperative agreement are a continuation of ongoing freshwater mussel propagation work initiated in 2004 and scheduled to continue until 2014, as described in the Plan.