Who Drained the Swamp?
Prior to the Section 404 of the CWA; the Federal Government encouraged citizens to drain or destroy wetlands.
In 1970, the EPA was established and in 1972, the CWA was passed.
The CWA was established to avoid and minimize the impact on designated water bodies and provide compensatory mitigation for unavoidable impacts.
The Clean Water Act was one of the United States’ first and most influential modern environmental laws.
Timeline:
• 1988: A national policy of ‘no net loss’ of wetland values and functions emerged.
• 1993: The concept of mitigation banking started taking shape.
• 1995: The guiding principles released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on the role of mitigation banks in the CWA 404 Program were expanded with guidelines on the establishment and the use of mitigation banks.
• 2008: After four years of planning, a federal rule to establish standards for mitigation banks, in-lieu fee programs and individual mitigation (also called permitted-responsible mitigation) was implemented. These standards are consistent with those in the CWA 404.
• 2015: Memorandum on “Mitigation impacts on natural resources from development and encouraging related private investments”.
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