The Raleigh News Observer http://www.newsobserver.com/  notes a recent round of layoffs in the state’s Ecosystem Enhancement Program (NCEEP) resulting from legislative changes leveled in 2011 intended to fix the failing program.  Read Story via http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/03/14/3703089/denr-cuts-jobs-in-wetlands-restoration.html

While concern lingers regarding private mitigation banking efforts currently underway within the state, the expensive, spectacular failures of NCEEP point out the ineffectual concept of paying fees in lieu of actual mitigation.  For those who care about the environment, importantly what failed for North Carolina was appropriate ecological offset under the Clean Water Act -offset for some impacts to streams and wetlands incurred long ago.

This is far from the first In-Lieu Fee (ILF) program failure. In mid-2013, some 35 ILFs in the U.S. were still non-compliant according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).   Despite this consistent pattern of failure in achieving ‘no net loss’ of the nation’s wetlands, there are a handful of these ILF’s under development in the U.S. today.

For the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, USEPA and others, the 2008 Mitigation Rule created a needed rationale for selecting from available mitigation alternatives, placing advanced compensatory mitigation at the top of its hierarchy.  Part of this consideration had to do with the issue of temporal loss of resource function or quality under other types of mitigation.

Advance mitigation (by proven, successful ecological restoration projects) creates needed offsets in advance of the environmental impact being permitted.  These mitigation banks create offsets (known as mitigation credits) and without taxing government with the restoration costs or risks.  They create permanent, lasting conservation.

The state of North Carolina has taken critical actions to ‘turn the ship around’ and is working to bring its mitigation ledgers into much-needed balance.  But NCEEP remains a cautionary tale for other states currently taking risks and incurring costs to run their own programs.  Compensatory mitigation needs can very often be served by private investment in successful restoration.