Wetlands - Laserfiche WebLink

New Search

Section 1: Introduction & History of the West Eugene Wetland Mitigation Bank Wetland mitigation banking is an evolving science that has developed a good reputation among critics of traditional wetland mitigation at a national scale. The WEW Mitigation Bank has an outstanding reputation among professionals in the Pacific Northwest and has served as a model program for many other communities interested in developing a bank. The West Eugene WEW is the oldest, most successful mitigation bank in the region and is viewed positively by the development community as well as the environmental community. The City signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with wetland regulatory agencies in 1993 as the first official step in establishing the WEW Mitigation Bank (Appendix A: City contract # 93-00270). This first MOA was specifically developed for the Eastern Gateway wetland restoration project. The project was constructed in the summer of 1993 and provided mitigation credits for the Eugene Airport with additional credits made available for sale to the public. The construction costs for this project provided a basis for the current fee for mitigation credits which is $30,000 per credit. Later, a different MOA was created that established the WEW Mitigation Bank (Appendix B) which is still in effect. It was signed in 1995 by the City, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Oregon Division of State Lands (DSL), Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Appendix B: City contract # 95-00266). This MOA lays out the roles, responsibilities, and procedures for operating the bank. It was developed specifically for the West Eugene Wetlands program. Since 1995, DSL has created a standardized guide for establishing wetland mitigation banks around the State. There are some differences between the current State procedures and the WEW Mitigation Bank but the agency has "grandfathered" the original WEW MOA into compliance. An example includes the procedures for having credits certified. Under the WEW MOA, the Bank has the credits certified immediately following submittal of a seeding & grading report. Under the State guidelines, banks must complete 5 years of monitoring prior to credit certification. DSL staff have indicated a desire the have the WEW Eugene bank conform with the State adopted procedures but no action has been initiated as of this date. The bank MOA provides direction for the City to operate the bank. It also established a Mitigation Bank Review Team (MBRT) which is a regulatory oversight body that has authority to approve, alter, or deny mitigation projects. Additionally, the MBRT has oversight for determining whether a project is successful or not and they require that an annual report be submitted which includes extensive monitoring data, bank financial transactions, a credit ledger, and a summary of field operations. Section 2: Costs for operating the WEW mitigation bank There are several components required to operate a wetland mitigation bank. This section attempts to describe all of the costs associated with providing this service at a theoretical level.