Mitigation Secured Before Bridge Repair

CREST HAVEN – As preparations are made to replace seven spans on the Townsend’s Inlet Bridge for $8.5 million, one of the details is mitigation.
Because the project is slated to begin shortly after Labor Day, freeholders approved the purchase of mitigation credits for $15,225 at the July 24 meeting.
The action will satisfy the state Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) requirements to restore 0.029 acre of wetlands that will be disturbed creating the revetment wall for the bridge. That wall will impact areas of intertidal and subtidal shallows, according to the resolution.
That mitigation will take place about 17 miles northwest of the bridge.
The funds will be paid to Evergreen Environmental LLC of Wayne, Pa. The firm owns the Stipson’s Island Mitigation Bank which is an approved DEP and Army Corps of Engineers mitigation site. It was constructed to provide mitigation credits for projects that otherwise disturb the environment, such as the bridge.
County Engineer Dale Foster told the board that the expense would be greater if the county did the work in-house. He cited the engineering work involved to prepare the plan, the cost to construct the site, then five-year reporting and then guaranteeing a 95 percent survival rate of vegetation.
According to the firm’s website, the Stipson’s Island Mitigation Bank is located on 35 acres of “agriculturally-modified land.”
It states that the parcel “provides opportunities to restore tidal as well as freshwater wetland habitat. Development of the bank will entail the removal of perimeter berms so as to re-introduce tidal flow and the filling of drainage ditches to raise the seasonal water table.
“Tidal marsh habitat as well as coastal wetland forest habitat will be restored in a mosaic with interspersed upland habitats. The parcel is adjacent to restored habitats under state protection as well as conservation easements.
“The Stipson’s bank will serve to promote habitat connectivity with these habitats to form a contiguous expanse of un-fragmented wildlife preserve.”
Technical studies there “have included monitoring of the tidal and freshwater groundwater hydrology, vegetative inventory, soil samples, delineation of habitat types and detailed topographic mapping. Permit pre-application conferences have been held, and permit applications are in preparation.”
The wetland bank was constructed and planted in 2007. Credits will be available for permitted applicants subject to mitigation requirements as part of federal and state permit processes.
The bank is to be protected in perpetuity under a conservation easement. “Once the restored bank has met all performance criteria, the bank will be donated to a land trust as approved by the state and federal regulatory agencies.”