The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District Regulatory Division is fostering a new partnership to streamline the mitigation bank process and improve ecological outcomes.
Louisville District Commander Col. L. Reyn Mann, along with Regulatory Division Chief Eric Reusch and Senior Project Manager Dr. Patti Grace-Jarrett, met with board members from the Kentucky Ecological Restoration Association to review the status of the Rolling Fork Stream Mitigation Bank on-site in Casey County, Kentucky, Oct. 22, 2024.
The goal of the site visit was to establish relationships with KERA, whose membership includes mitigation bank sponsors and consultants that regularly work with USACE to obtain permits and approvals for mitigation banks, review the results of stream restoration work and discuss future initiatives to improve the mitigation bank approval process.
The Louisville District Regulatory Division evaluates permit applications for work in waters of the United States, ensures compliance with issued permits and initiates enforcement actions as required for activities conducted without the required Department of Army permit.
“The permits we issue may require compensatory mitigation to offset impacts to important aquatic resources,” Reusch said. “Mitigation banks provide an efficient compensatory mitigation option for permittees, which often reduces permit processing timeframes and the risk of failure.”
The district’s Regulatory Division is responsible for approving or denying all mitigation bank proposals within its area of responsibility, which includes the majority of Indiana and Kentucky, and eastern Illinois.
“Mitigation banks are a critical part of the USACE regulatory program in that they allow Department of the Army permit applicants to offset unavoidable impacts to important aquatic resources like streams and wetlands through the purchase of bank credits,” Grace-Jarrett said.
The division also makes decisions on the success of the mitigation bank in meeting ecological performance standards and how many mitigation credits are available for sale by the mitigation bank sponsor.
“The biggest challenge facing the team is the technical and legal review that must be completed to approve a mitigation bank,” Grace-Jarrett said. “These projects involve complex ecological and hydrologic considerations as well as issues concerning long-term site protection and financial assurance instruments like bonds and casualty insurance. If these technical and legal issues are not resolved appropriately, the mitigation bank is at risk of failure, which has financial implications for bank sponsors and ecological implications for aquatic resources.”
In addition to the KERA partnership, the Regulatory Division, along with Louisville District Office of Counsel and Engineering Division, has implemented new tools to minimize timeframes associated the reviews and improve the ecological outcomes of these projects.
The recently developed Stream Resiliency and Sustainability Review Tools will help regulatory project managers review mitigation bank proposals more quickly, ensure appropriate ecological performance standards are implemented for projects and reduce the risk associated with project failures.
“Through her regulatory program knowledge and outstanding technical proficiency, Grace-Jarrett has ensured strong protection for the Nation's aquatic resources and improved the efficiency of the Regulatory Program,” Reusch said. “Grace-Jarrett has utilized her expertise to successfully manage a complex and high-profile workload that includes numerous mitigation banking proposals and has developed several technical evaluation tools and critical guidance to improve the quality, consistency, and timeliness of Regulatory Program decisions.”