Mile High
Wetlands
Group, LLC

Home

Overview

The Benefits

Mitigation Banking -
All You Want To Know

Location

Service Area

Current Look
at The Bank

How to
Purchase Credits

Links

E-mail

(P) 303.777.0188
(F) 303.659.6077

Copyright © 1999
Mile High Wetlands Group
All rights reserved

To the Project Owner/Developer:

• Reduces regulatory review and processing time. The mitigation section of the permit application can simply state the applicant’s intent to purchase credits from the mitigation Bank. This translates into time saved in mitigation plan development, time saved in regulatory review of the mitigation proposal, and time saved in negotiating final details associated with a mitigation plan.The mitigation section of the permit application can simply state the applicant’s intent to purchase credits from the mitigation Bank. This translates into time saved in mitigation plan development, time saved in regulatory review of the mitigation proposal, and time saved in negotiating final details associated with a mitigation plan.

• Eliminates need to dedicate or acquire land and water for mitigation purposes. Use of on-site land or acquisition of off-site properties can be a costly and/or undesirable proposition. Securing and guaranteeing sufficient water resources to support the wetland in perpetuity is often challenging. Encumbrance of the property in perpetuity for mitigation purposes is no longer an issue to contend with.

• Eliminates subcontracted design, construction, monitoring, and maintenance. Implementing a successful mitigation project "in-house" requires the use of technical and experienced professionals. Design of the mitigation plan is typically contracted through experienced wetland biologists, engineers, and/or landscape architects. Construction implementation will often involve a separate contractor specialized in environmental reclamation work. Follow-up monitoring and maintenance, usually required by the permit for a three- to five-year duration, will again involve the original designer. The several years of carrying costs, time, financial uncertainty, and headache associated with management and coordination of these contractors can be eliminated entirely by using the Bank.

• Cost-effective. Considering all of the costs associated with mitigation (including land, water, design, permitting review, construction, monitoring, maintenance, and warranty), purchasing credits from the Bank is most often the cost-effective alternative. No hidden costs or contractor "change orders". Use of the Bank provides a fixed, known cost that can be used to develop an accurate assessment of a project’s bottom-line.

• Completely eliminates risk and liability. What happens if your "in-house" mitigation attempts fail? If pursued by the regulatory agencies, you may be forced to remediate at whatever cost and/or pay a fine. If you purchase credits from the Bank, the entire responsibility and liability associated with mitigation performance is shifted to and accepted by the Bank.

• Large Complexes of Aquatic Ecosystems. Banks are generally large in size, designed to incorporate a diversity of wetland types, and can be sited in ecologically important locations to maximize their function. These complexes can provide greater function and ecological value as compared with small, isolated and fragmented mitigation sites scattered throughout a watershed.

• Helps approach the national policy goal of no-net-loss. Studies conducted on the topic of wetland mitigation efforts have concluded that, nationwide, more than 50% of all wetland mitigation projects fail for a variety of reasons. Wetland mitigation banks can help to increase the likelihood of mitigation success, moving the national average closer to the goal of no-net-loss of aquatic resource. Implementation and maintenance of a bank requires the focus of significant technical, financial and institutional resources that are dedicated solely for banking purposes. Based upon federal guidelines that govern the operation of banks, a legal banking instrument is developed. This instrument dictates certain performance and financial warranties that create strong economic incentives for ultimate success.

• Mitigation Occurs in Advance of Impacts. Traditional on-site mitigation is most often implemented months to years after the original wetlands have been lost, creating a "functional lag-time". Banks create large complexes of wetlands in advance of credits being issued against losses, thereby overcoming the temporal lag-time effect.
  

• Consolidation of Resources. With the purview of the Section 404 regulatory program expanding, and development pressures increasing, the regulatory and resource agencies have experienced greater demand for their already limited time and human resources. By consolidating numerous mitigation commitments at one bank, the demand for individual mitigation plan review, implementation verification, and follow-up compliance checks is greatly diminished.

• Program Support. The philosophy upon which the banking concept was formed supports a number of the programmatic goals and objectives of the Section 404 program, including the "no-net-loss" of aquatic resource goal..