January 16, 2013
David Flick, Principal and Founder, announces that the firm has submitted the Draft Instrument for the Terra Foundation’s proposed Oklahoma In-Lieu Fee Stream & Wetland Mitigation Program. This proposed mitigation program will benefit Clean Water Act Section 404 and 401 permit applicants by dramatically increasing the geographic area where applicants will be able to utilize the preferred option of centralized mitigation. It will also provide benefits to water quality and wildlife habitat in Oklahoma as an in-lieu fee program consolidates mitigation resources into larger restoration sites located in areas of greatest benefit to watershed restoration. Additionally, it will also help federal and state regulatory agencies streamline their mitigation approval process and monitoring oversight by limiting the number of mitigation projects that require their supervision.
An in-lieu fee mitigation program allows Clean Water Act Section 404 and 401 applicants to satisfy their compensatory mitigation requirements by writing a check to a third party who is then responsible for designing, constructing and monitoring the wetland or stream restoration project instead of the applicant. This allows the applicant to eliminate the risk and cost involved if a mitigation project requires maintenance or fails. It also permits the applicant to keep their focus on their core business rather than devoting time and resources to oversee the site selection, design, monitoring and regulatory oversight of a permittee-responsible compensatory mitigation project.
The Draft Instrument is the second to last stage of the in-lieu fee program approval process. As part of the creation of this document, Terra Technologies authored a systematic analysis of the watersheds of Oklahoma, a state that The Nature Conservancy described as “one of the most biologically diverse areas in North America.” This analysis included an assessment of the historic loss of aquatic resources for each watershed as well as the current aquatic resource conditions and the threats to the existing aquatic resources. It also featured the goals and objectives of the in-lieu fee mitigation program and its prioritization strategy for site selection and choice of mitigation activities which is tailored to the needs of each watershed.
For more information about centralized mitigation, contact your local office of Terra Technologies. |
