Wetlands Delineation and Permitting Services
ARC offers complete wetland consulting services from delineation and Section 404/401 permitting, to mitigation services that include site selection, design, construction oversight, and monitoring.
Wetlands are defined, according to the Code of Federal Regulations, as: “Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.”
ARC understands the potential impacts of jurisdictional wetlands to our client’s land use and development projects. Our team of environmental scientists accurately delineates and classifies jurisdictional wetlands ranging in size from small single tract developments to much larger areas related to transportation and other federally funded program initiatives.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the primary regulatory and permitting authority with respect to the determination of the presence of jurisdictional wetlands. Proposed land-use and development activities within jurisdictional wetlands are subject to Corps review and approval through the Section 404 permitting process.
Delineation of the potential wetland area that may be impacted is the first step in obtaining a Section 404 permit. ARC has extensive experience with the specific U.S. Army Corps Engineers guidelines, as well as varying state protocols that must be followed for jurisdictional delineation and subsequent permitting of proposed wetland areas. Our regulatory knowledge and expertise insures delineation and permit approval will occur in the most expeditious manner.
Federal wetland policy clearly affirms a philosophy of “avoid”, “minimize” and “compensate”. Our experienced environmental professionals partner with our clients in initial project design to first avoid, and then minimize impacts to wetlands with the overall goal of eliminating or reducing any compensatory mitigation required and thereby significantly reducing overall site development and project costs.
When impacts to wetland areas are determined to be unavoidable, ARC’s environmental professionals are skilled in developing end to end mitigation solutions to include negotiation of mitigation ratios, new wetland site location, design, construction oversight, and subsequent monitoring.
ARC takes a proactive approach to potential wetland issues that involves working with our clients in the initial phases of the site development planning process, so that site designs can be accomplished that achieve project goals with little or no impact to jurisdictional wetlands. The end result is a significant economic benefit to our clients in that wetland impacts are either avoided or minimized in the project design phase, which eliminates or dramatically reduces schedule delays and additional costs associated with potential permitting and/or mitigation.