Army Corps of Engineers announces additional reforms to wetland programs.

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 4, 1995--The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today announced several changes to the Clean Water Act wetlands program designed to reduce regulatory burdens and minimize the time and expense of landowners seeking permits under the Section 404 regulatory program.

These initiatives are part of a comprehensive 40-point wetlands plan issued by the Clinton administration in August 1993, as well as, a part of the administration's recent regulatory reinvention initiative announced in February 1995. This plan and the reinvention initiative continue to make the wetlands program fairer and more flexible for landowners and more effective in protecting aquatic resources.

On July 27, the Corps of Engineers published in the Federal Register a nationwide permit for the construction or expansion of single family homes in wetlands. The permit was announced by the President on July 12 and will become effective Sept. 25. The permit will allow landowners to affect up to one-half acre of non-tidal wetlands for construction or expansion of a home and attendant structures such as a driveway or garage. Landowners will no longer have to go through the more lengthy individual permit process which typically takes more than 120 days. Under Corps general permits, landowners receive decisions on their applications in an average of 16 days.

Also on July 19, the Corps proposed to establish an administrative appeals process allowing landowners to challenge wetlands jurisdiction determinations and permit denials without going to court. This will save landowners the considerable time and expense of having to resort to judicial actions, when faced with a decision they find unsatisfactory. The proposed appeals process was published in the July 19 Federal Register to begin the public comment process, which closes Sept. 5.

In response to public concern about the time required to obtain permit decisions, the Corps is preparing rule changes which will establish a 90-day processing time for decisions on standard permits. These changes will promote more predictability for permit applicants. The draft changes are near completion and will be ready for publication by the end of this year.

The Corps and other federal agencies published draft guidance encouraging the use of wetlands mitigation banks in March 1995. Comments received in response to the draft have been reviewed and evaluated. The agencies are preparing the final policy document and expect to publish it in the Federal Register within the next few weeks. Mitigation banking will facilitate wise environmental management in the wetlands related programs of each of the agencies, and give permit applicants more flexibility in meeting mitigation requirements.

The Corps is preparing a rule change that will eliminate the requirement to collect the current permit fees of $10 and $100 for private and commercial activities respectively. These fees cost the Corps more to administer than the amounts of the fees collected. The recision is scheduled for publication before the end of the year. Not only will this remove the requirement for permitees to pay a fee, but it will also save the taxpayer dollars now spent in administering a fee program that is not cost effective.

In March 1995, the Corps proposed in the Federal Register a program that will allow the Corps to rely on private sector wetlands delineators. The comments received in response to that notice have been reviewed and evaluated. The Corps expects to finalize the program in the next few months. This program will allow the Corps to place more reliance on private sector delineations, thus aiding in a reduction of the current backlog of wetland delineations.

For more information concerning the changes being announced today, please contact Michael L. Davis, chief of the Corps of Engineers Regulatory Program, or Jack Chowning, Regulatory Branch point of contact for the reinvention initiative, at 202/761-1781.

CONTACT: U.S. Army Corps Engineers

Mike Allegre, 503/326-6005