Wednesday, June 6, 2007 - 2:00 PM
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The Status of Compensatory Mitigation for Lost Stream Functions in EPA Region 4

Stephanie Fulton, Wetlands Regulatory Section, US EPA/Water Management Division, Atlanta, GA 30303

This paper examines the various types of stream (lotic) restoration activities performed as compensatory mitigation by stream bank sponsors and in-lieu fee program recipients in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 4 states (including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee).  Both the mitigation mechanisms (i.e., on-site/off-site, mitigation banking, in-lieu fee payments) and methods (e.g., restoration, enhancement, creation, preservation) approved to compensate for lost lotic functions vary widely across the Region: purchasing stream credits from an approved mitigation bank, paying a fee in-lieu of conducting restoration activities, complete channel reconfiguration (e.g., returning meanders to previously straightened streams), stream channel enhancement (e.g., habitat structures, bank stabilization, and riparian zone plantings); and preservation.  Consensus of those present will be challenged regarding the ability of these mitigation activities to restore and/or replicate lost aquatic functions, and whether restoration activities should even be undertaken on certain streams (e.g., geomorphically stable stream channels with healthy macroinvertebrate populations).

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