On October 13, 2005, after three years of development, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) Norfolk District Regulatory Branch issued a Public Notice announcing the adoption and implementation of the Stream Attribute Assessment Methodology (SAAM). On November 15, 2005, the COE began to implement the SAAM on an interim basis for use in evaluating stream impacts and determining the amount of mitigation required to compensate for unavoidable stream impacts to satisfy the conditions of a Section 404 permit. (See WSSI newsletter dated November 21, 2005 for details.)

Then, on December 29, 2005, the COE and Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued a retraction of that requirement and “encouraged” the use of both the SAAM and DEQ’s Stream Impact and Compensation Assessment Manual (SICAM).

Finally, on March 3, 2006, the COE and DEQ announced a Joint Public Notice that required SAAM to be used for Nationwide Permits (NWPs) and both SAAM and SICAM for State Program General Permit (SPGP) development projects in Category C and Individual Permits (IPs). When both systems are used, the public will be required to abide by the conditions of the most restrictive permit.

Sometime after June 2006, the DEQ and COE plan a joint meeting to review the resulting data and develop a stream methodology that both agencies can support. However, prior to the DEQ and COE meeting to discuss these results, the public is offered the opportunity to present data from the two methodologies or to make comments on May 24, 2006 at the Williamsburg Regional Library at 10:30 A.M.

Finally, the Commonwealth of Virginia has publicly announced its desire to assume the 404 Program from the COE. How this factors into the current deadlock in the arena of stream mitigation remains to be seen.

For more information, contact Mike Rolband, Mark Headly, Frank Graziano, Dan Lucey, Scott Petrey, or Kelly Stanforth.