trey's blog

The South Carolina Legislature voted on March 1 to override Gov. Nikki Haley's veto of a measure that suspends a state agency's power to issue dredging permits on the Savannah River, and retroactively cancels the permit awarded in November for the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project. The water quality certification awarded to further the Georgia Ports Authority's plans to deepen about 38 miles from 42 feet to 48 feet drew heated reaction from South Carolina lawmakers, who said the plan could harm the environment and put South Carolina's ports at a disadvantage.
 
The deepening of the Port of Savannah is considered to be the Peach State's most crucial public works project and is intended to prepare the channel for larger post-Panamax container ships expected in 2014.
 
Prior to the cancellation of the permit, the South Carolina Ports Authority decided not to spend any more money to develop a Jasper County harbor. The permit would have meant that South Carolina would not have access to land slated for the Jasper port for decades, and lawmakers contend the river would be so impaired that getting a water quality permit for Jasper would be unlikely.

Read more about the permit vote here and here. Read about the Jasper funding here. 
 

Hall County has ended its relationship with Glades Reservoir consultant Tommy Craig. Craig, an attorney who has performed consulting services to numerous Georgia organizations looking to build reservoirs, was retained by the county to help it get permits to build Glades. The decision comes after questions relating to the amount spend on Craig's services.

Before officially cutting ties, Craig's firm submitted an environmental mitigation plan as part of the county's application for the environmental impact statement to help federal permitting officials determine whether to approve the construction of the proposed reservoir.

You can read more about the county's decision here. More information about the environmental impact statement can be found here. 
 

Gov. Nathan Deal gave the go-ahead in late December for the state to begin accepting applications for the first installment of $300 million to build reservoirs and other water supply projects. The Georgia Department of Community Affairs and Georgia Environmental Finance Authority opened the program to applications in January with the goal of making the first funding awards by next summer.
 
Read more about the program here and access the applications here. 
 

Legislation eyeing the Tennessee River Basin as a potential water supply source for metro Atlanta failed to pass either the Georgia House of Representatives or state Senate by the March 7th deadline, and thus, is all but dead for 2012. A bill exempting Georgia's northwestern corner from a state law banning interbasin transfers passed the Senate Natural Resources & Environment Committee in February but failed to reach the Senate floor.

Read more about the legislation here.
 

A decade-old, multi-million dollar program for restoring degraded Tennessee streams has come under attack in the state Legislature even as Gov. Bill Haslam's administration moves to give it new legal status. Critics of the Tennessee Stream Mitigation Program, which is overseen by a non-profit foundation, characterized it as a "wholesale auction" of the state's waterways to developers who can pay a fee for their pollution while leaving devastated downstream landowners in a lurch.

Testimony in a hearing before the House Conservation committee also raised questions about whether the non-profit Tennessee Wildlife Resources Foundation faces appropriate financial accountability under the present setup, which was put in place by a 2002 "memorandum of understanding" between state and federal agencies.

Read more about the case here.
 

The U.S. Supreme Court, in March, ruled in an unanimous decision in favor of the Sacketts in the case of Sackett v. EPA, asserting that when it comes to wetlands, "arbitrary and capricious" compliance orders can be challenged in court without having to wait for the EPA to take enforcement action.

This case challenges administrative enforcement procedures and has ramifications for wetlands protection across the country. Environmentalists are concerned with how this will impact EPA's power to quickly correct a violation. However, there is reason for relief because the Court chose to focus on whether the Administrative Procedures Act applied, not on whether the EPA's order violated the right of due process. While property owners now have legal cover to seek judicial review on a compliance order, this does not mean that compliance or financial penalties can be delayed.
 
Read more about the background and the Court's ruling here.
 

The New Orleans District adopted the Modified Charleston Method in May 2011 as a means of calculating required mitigation. The District chose to utilize this method to fix problems with under-mitigating impacts and inconsistency in credit calculation. Developers are not happy with the changes because they have led to an increased cost of mitigation, which in some cases, can quadruple the eventual purchase price of a development site. Local leaders fear the tough new restrictions will stifle growth for years to come.
 
While the cost to mitigate wetlands has increased under the new method, the fact that the parish has only one mitigation bank from which to buy credits means there is no competition, and therefore, no concessions on price. Leaders have proposed to the Corps about the parish creating its own mitigation bank.
 
Critics of the Charleston Method say it imposes excessive mitigation requirements and exponential penalties on public works and infrastructure projects while not providing enough credit for marsh creation projects or ensuring that sufficient mitigation banking opportunities are available.
 
You can read more about the mitigation in the New Orleans District here.
 

Mitigation Management is excited to release its National Market Update for 2011.  Many interesting trends were identified in this issue and we look forward to receiving feedback from other practitioners around the country.

Attachment: 

2011 National Update.pdf

Mitigation Management is excited to annouce that we will be acting as the exclusive sales agent for the Patriots Pride mitigation bank.  This bank is in the final stages of the banking instrument approval process and is anticipated to generate 104,650 stream credits in the Altamaha river basin.
 
For additional information please reference the attached service area map.  For pricing and availability, please contact us or use our "request a quote" feature.

Attachment: 

patriots_pride_flyer.pdf

Mitigation Management is excited to announce that we are acting as the exclusive sales agent for the Ogeechee River mitigation bank.  This bank has 39.61 remaining and available wetland credits.  These credits have been authorizied to offset unavoidable impacts to freshwater tidal wetlands.
 
For additional information, please reference the attached service area map.  For availability and pricing please contact us or use our "request a quote" feature.

Attachment: 

ogeechee_river_flyer.pdf