House GOP 'Lease' Plan Seeks To Ease CWA Mitigation Project Obligations

摘要

A pending House GOP bill seeks to ease Clean Water Act (CWA) permit holders' obligations to create mitigation banks used to offset damage to waters from permitted activities by establishing a novel "lease" program to terminate the obligations after the permitted activity on the project that they are designed to mitigate is complete. The legislation could gain attention in the coming weeks and months given expectations that EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers'joint CWA jurisdiction rule could boost creation of mitigation banks, because the rule is likely to drive more CWA permitting in regions that have previously seen scant mitigation. H.R. 3271, introduced July 28 by Rep. Don Young (R-AK), would amend the water law to establish a "preservation leasing" program, under which permit holders could agree to pay for state or tribal lands to be preserved for compensatory mitigation only until permitted activity on the project they are designed to mitigate is complete.