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Virginia Marine Resources Commission Adopts Changes to its Tidal Wetlands Mitigation and Compensation Policy |
If you develop land along the Potomac River, or any other tidal wetland areas in Virginia, be prepared to mitigate and/or compensate for all impacts to tidal wetlands. In a unanimous vote on May 24, 2005, Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) members officially adopted a
new policy of “no net loss” in the tidal wetlands regulatory program.
Such a policy for non-tidal wetlands was implemented by the Department
of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in 2001.Citing Virginia’s Wetlands Act as the basis for the policy change, the VMRC implemented a two-tiered approach in an effort to ensure that its tidal wetlands regulatory program will achieve the new “no net loss” initiative: (1) permit applicants must prove, by passing three VMRC stipulated criteria, that the wetland loss is an unavoidable necessity; and (2) appropriate compensation requirements will only be considered by VMRC after the proof of necessity for impacts has been obtained and will be derived from a list of 17 VMRC mitigation design and performance criteria.
The new policy will eliminate the “1,000 square feet or less” impact exemption.
While there has been a total net gain in wetlands in the Commonwealth over the last decade, those gains are derived from the preservation and creation of non-tidal wetland areas, which are regulated by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). From 1993 through 2004, the tidal regulatory program, operated by the VMRC, recorded a net loss of 132 acres of tidal wetlands, while only requiring compensation for approximately 20 acres of impacts.
VMRC’s new wetlands mitigation and compensation policy amendment strives to bring the agency into closer alignment with the Commonwealth’s wetlands initiatives and with other state agencies, such as the DEQ, that regulate wetland impacts.
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