Proposal targets wetlands

JOHN DODGE, THE OLYMPIAN

OLYMPIA -- A new tool to restore and create wetlands when other wetlands are destroyed by development is taking shape in this state.

It's called wetland mitigation banking. Here's how it works:

A piece of property where wetlands are restored, created or enhanced is the bank.

The developer, local government or state agency that did the restoration or creation receives a set number of credits for the effort.

Those credits are then cashed in by the developer or sold to someone else when land-use activities damage or eliminate wetlands somewhere else.

Backers of the measure said it's a whole lot more useful than trying to create a new wetland on property where another wetland is destroyed.

And the new rule, which sets up standards and procedures for certifying the banks, coincides with recent local and state studies that suggest wetlands replacement projects are falling short of their intended goals.

"You can use banking to get larger, interconnected wetlands where they do the most good," said state Department of Ecology wetlands specialist Andy McMillan. "It gets away from simply digging holes in the ground."

Wetlands are lands saturated with water, including swamps, marshes and bogs. They serve many important functions, providing habitat for 212 animal species in Western Washington, catching floodwaters before they damage property, trapping pollutants and replenishing groundwater supplies.

Lost lands

Between 1780 and 1984, more than half of the wetlands in the United States were lost to filling, draining and diking for farms and development, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Washington state is no exception. Roughly one-third of the 1.4 million acres of wetlands statewide were drained or filled between statehood and 1989, the federal wildlife agency estimated.

Despite attempts to replace wetlands and enforce no-net-loss- of-wetlands policies, as many as 90,000 acres of wetlands are lost on nonfederal lands each year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In South Sound, the county and cities protect wetlands as small as a quarter-acre to a half-acre in size.

On projects that require wetland filling, developers are required to restore or create other wetlands to a similar or greater size, usually on or near the project site.

Minimal success

But a recent review of 17 wetland mitigation projects in South Sound found 65 percent clearly had been replanted with vegetation. And 18 percent of the replanted sites had plant survival rates of 50 percent or higher, according to a November study by the Thurston Regional Planning Council.

The state plans to release a report that suggests about 25 percent of the replacement wetlands required as a condition of a project are healthy, functioning systems, McMillan said.

Wetland mitigation banks could improve on the status quo, said Steve Morrison, a regional council senior planner who reviewed county and city wetlands and stream protection ordinances for the council study.

"Mitigation banking could help eliminate the number of small manmade wetlands that are scattered, built on inappropriate sites, unmonitored or not maintained," the study said.

Environmentalists don't believe the pieces are in place to guarantee the banks will be a success, said Brid Nowlan, science director for the Washington State Wetlands Network, a program of the National Audubon Society.

"There's a lack of local and state funding and staffing to monitor the bank sites," she said.

Opposition

For example, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife eliminated its wetland section in budget cuts last year, she said.

More emphasis should be placed on avoiding the destruction of wetlands in the first place, she said.

"Mitigation should be a last resort," she said. "Permits to fill wetlands may be easier to get if a bank is in place."

Wetland mitigation banks are another tool in the toolbox that will protect wetlands where they do the most good for flood protection, salmon recovery, water quality and other ecological values, said Joy Walker, legal counsel for the Building Industry Association of Washington.

"We need banks to continue to grow and support economic development, because development will impact wetlands," she said.

Another tension created by wetland banks is a fear that all of the protection will occur in rural areas at the expense of urban wetlands, McMillan noted.

"Some urban people don't want it all going to rural areas," he said. "Wetlands in urban areas are not going to be as robust for diversity of species. But they can be extremely effective for protecting water quality."

Washington banks

A few wetland banks are already in place across the state.

For example, the state Department of Transportation is removing fill from wetlands on a 230-acre farm near the Newaukum River in Lewis County in lieu of wetland damage linked to the widening of Interstate 5 through Lewis County, said Barb Aberle, mitigation banking biologist for the state transportation agency.

Thurston County applied for a state grant in 1996 to create a wetland bank for its own highway project, Morrison said. The grant was denied.

He said the county may want to look at wetland banking again, however, once the Ecology rule is approved.

Private entrepreneurs could get into the banking business too, McMillan said.

But a provision in the rule prevents someone from buying a piece of land covered with wetlands just to sell the credits to developers, McMillan said.

John Dodge covers the environment and energy for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5444.

On the Web:

- Department of Ecology

- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

For related stories go to the South Sound section.

What's next

A public hearing on a Department of Ecology rule allowing wetland mitigation banks is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Ecology headquarters, 300 Desmond Drive, Lacey.

A question-and-answer session will precede the public hearing at 6 p.m.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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