April 2008

Hey, did you hear that the Wetland Conservation Act (WCA) [pronounced “Wacka”] is being updated again? What? AGAIN?!? Didn’t they just do that?
 

Well, yes and no. The rules that went into effect in 2007 were “emergency” rules. While not emergency in the true sense of the word (no ambulances were called to the scene of the rule making process), these are rules that are quickly put into effect and are valid for a limited time while the “real” rules are developed. So the “emergency” rules are currently in-place while the Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) [pronounced “Bowser”] and a group of stakeholders work through getting the “real” rules in place.

All kidding aside with the acronyms and the process, this is a very important and serious process. Like it or lump it, the WCA affects almost every project you and I work on and being informed on what is going on is important for all of our projects. I will try to keep you updated through this blog. You let me know if you have comments or questions or if I can help clarify the information.

The BWSR stakeholder process includes a wide range of folks, including city, consultant, agency, and special interest groups. The stakeholder meetings began in January 2008 and will continue until October 2008. The earlier in the process that comments are provided, the easier it is to have your comments heard. By this time next year, most of the “real” rules will be in place with official adoption expected by summer 2009.

While a lot of things changed during the emergency rules, in a nutshell, the main items that affect our projects are new mitigation (wetland replacement) ratios and decreased “de minimis” area. De minimis is the amount of wetland you can impact without having to provide mitigation. These changes actually got made at the legislative level and BWSR has been trying to make these changes more clear. While I’d say that these rule changes are complicated to follow, they are here to stay. We’ve included a link to a flow chart that I use to figure out these two items. As I previously mentioned, I’d be happy to help you if you need clarification.

With the “real” rule process going on now, the rule changes that were made with de minimis and ratios will not go away. They may be clarified. But the biggest change that will likely happen will be the process by which we get wetland “credit” or mitigation on our projects. I’ll save that for the next posting…