The Environmental Law Institute® has released the proceeding from a Mitigation Stakeholders Forum that took place at the National Aquarium in Baltimore in October 2001. The Forum was sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Maryland Department of the Environment, and National Aquarium in Baltimore.
The forum brought together a diverse group of individuals from federal and state government, non-profit environmental organizations, third party mitigation providers, academia, home builders, representatives of the oil and gas industry, and non-governmental organizations, with an interest in the future of wetlands compensatory mitigation. Wetlands compensatory mitigation is the restoration, creation, enhancement, or preservation of wetlands for the purpose of compensating for wetland impacts approved under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. The meeting was designed to provide an opportunity for the participants to discuss and debate issues associated with improving the implementation of ecologically effective wetlands compensatory mitigation under the Clean Water Act Section 404 program.
“EPA is committed to ensuring that all stakeholders have the opportunity to inform decision-makers in the development of national policy. We are working with our federal partners to ensure that we effectively address concerns that were raised about wetlands mitigation in several independent studies,” said John Meagher, Director of the Wetlands Division at EPA. Gary Setzer of MDE noted, “I believe that forums like these help ensure that state and other voices are heard on important environmental issues.”
A particular focus of the forum was the series of recommendations issued in recent reports by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the General Accounting Office (GAO) on compensatory mitigation. Forum participants reviewed these 31 recommendations and added additional recommendations for consideration. The group then identified 15 recommendations, five in each of three categories—technical, policy, and programmatic—that were the focus of the remaining discussions.
“This Forum provided a unique opportunity for a wide range of views to be aired on the recommendations in the NAS and GAO reports and, more generally, on the future of federal wetland mitigation,” states Jessica Wilkinson, Director of ELI’s Wetlands Program.
The forum was designed to capture feedback on a range of topics associated with compensatory mitigation to help inform decision makers on the formulation of national wetlands mitigation guidance. It was not designed to generate consensus opinions or develop consensus-based recommendations.
Many of the recommendations discussed by forum participants revolved around the development and application of ecological criteria or performance standards. Below is a summary of some of the opinions that surfaced.
- Federal agencies should work cooperatively to develop ecological performance standards for mitigation.
- Ecological performance standards should be defined regionally and be based on watershed priorities.
- All forms of compensatory mitigation should be held to the same standards.
- More research is needed on the development of shorter-term, measurable performance standards.
Copies of the Stakeholder Forum on Federal Wetlands Mitigation are available for $20.00 plus shipping by calling (800) 433-5120, or can be downloaded for free from http://www.eli.org/Program_Areas/Events/wetlands_mitigation_forum.cfm. For more information on this or future wetlands forums, contact Jessica Wilkinson at 609-818-0518 or visit our website at http://www.eli.org.