Preventing Accidental Impacts to Wetlands The recent increase in DEQ compliance reviews have found numerous inadvertent un-permitted impacts to wetlands and streams from: Final engineering causing layout changes from the original permit plans; and Construction access ways between areas approved for disturbance. These problems can be easily avoided if all construction plans include: The surveyed boundary of all Waters of the U.S. (WOUS) (i.e., streams, wetlands and ponds.) Shading of all permitted impact areas and identification of same in drawing legend; A copy of the Jurisdiction Determination (JD) approval of the WOUS delineation, Corps of Engineers (COE) permit, and Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) permit. This way all parties involved in the site's construction can see which areas must be protected and anyone working on future land plan changes will be alerted to the extent of current permitted impacts – reducing liability and concern for all involved: owner/developer, contractors, builders, engineers, surveyors and planners. For more information on this subject, contact Bill Nell, Brian Chromey, Mark Headly, or Mike Rolband.