Additional information from Councilman Joash Schulman and the Dept of Public Works in response to questions from the community about the Wetlands Project at PHP.
Comment 1: Credits exist from three banks servicing the Lynnhaven Watershed (02080108), why doesn’t the city purchase them from these banks instead of building the PHP Bank?
Answer 1: We are aware of these banks but only one has tidal wetland credits, and those tidal wetland credits have only become available recently. The existing non-tidal and tidal banks are as follows:
- New Mill Creek Tidal Mitigation Bank – has 5.27 credits of various types relating to tidal wetlands
- Chesapeake Bay Wetland Mitigation Bank – has no (0.00 tidal wetland credits for sale), and has 3.9 credits of non-tidal wetland credits.
- Virginia Aquatic Resources Trust Fund (VARTF) – has no (0.00 tidal wetland credits for sale). They have various sites, but all are for non-tidal wetland credits.
Comment 2: The City has the opportunity to purchase credits right now, from banks servicing the Lynnhaven watershed (02080108) per the USACE. The City has purchased credits from New Mill last year.
Answer 2: As noted above there is only one bank with tidal wetland credits and that bank has 5.27 tidal wetland credits to serve the Elizabeth River watershed, lower James River watershed and the Elizabeth River Watersheds. (The credits are needed in the Lynnhaven Watershed).The City has not only the needs of the Windsor Woods Pump Station and the London Bridge Creek flood gates and pump station projects (approximately 2.7 credits) to mitigate in the future, but other City projects that will have a need for tidal wetland credits as well. Even if the City could somehow purchase all the credits from that bank, it may not satisfy all the City’s future need for credits. Additionally, purchasing credits well in advance of the formal permit application process is counter to the federal regulations.
Specifically, credits are not to be purchased before the proper permit applications are submitted, reviewed by the necessary federal and state agencies and those same agencies verify that impacts to tidal wetlands are minimized to the maximum extent practicable, and only then can discussions about credits be discussed in detail. The only exception is unless the applicant owns its own mitigation facility. By the City owning its own mitigation bank, it is sure that those credits are 1) available when needed in the future and 2) will be accepted by the agencies when the time comes that they are needed. Otherwise, the City is now not even at the point to discuss use of the New Mill Creek Tidal Mitigation Bank with the Federal and State permitting agencies.
While the New Mill Creek Tidal Mitigation Bank has credits available, that does not mean that the City can automatically rely on their availability in the future when needed. Additionally, there is a second set of decisions that must be made by federal and state regulators, and which can only be made at the time of permitting; namely, whether a bank with credits to sell is the appropriate mitigation for a project, and that project’s watershed. The problem the City of Virginia Beach has is that the City has a very large project (Windsor Woods, Princess Anne Plaze & The Lakes Flood Protection Project (Megabundle Project), with large projected impacts to tidal wetlands within the Lynnhaven River Watershed. That permit application has not been submitted yet, and will be decided on by federal and state agencies about 1.5+/- years from now. The City cannot risk finding out 1.5+/- years from now that the agencies disallow use of the New Mill Bank , which could occur because it is not in the Lynnhaven River basin. The risk is that while the credits are coming from the Elizabeth River watershed, there would still be a large net loss of wetlands in the Lynnhaven River Basin. If the agencies were to decide that is not appropriate, they would notify the City that the City needs to proceed with constructing the PHP Bank as it is located in the Lynnhaven River watershed and thus would offset the impacts occurring in the Lynnhaven River Watershed.
The agencies know the City owns the PHP Bank, and has secured all the City, Federal and State agency signatures needed on the Banking Agreement. If the City were to wait 1.5 years and learn then they needed the PHP Bank, it would cause enormous delays to the schedule of the Megabundle Project, risk another flood event to those communities, and cause substantial monetary impacts to the Contractor and the City. It was too great a risk to the City and the flood protection project and is why City Council voted unanimously on January 7 to fully fund the PHP Bank.
Additionally, the agencies do not want cities or any persons to acquire wetland credits in advance of the formal permit application process for the reasons noted above. Those regulatory agencies are the arbiters of when purchasing or using mitigation credits is appropriate, and that cannot be decided until approximately 1.5+/- years from now for the Megabundle. It is simply too much of a risk to wait that long to find out the answer when the City has a fully approved mitigation banking agreement in place for the Pleasure House Point Bank. This same situation will repeat itself in the future for each subsequent City project impacting tidal wetlands in the Lynnhaven watershed.
Lastly, the City has a public interest in maintaining tidal wetland acreage and water quality in each of its watersheds. The Lynnhaven Watershed is one of the most highly developed watersheds in the City and has experienced significant historical tidal wetland loss. One of those losses was the filling of tidal wetlands at the City’s Pleasure House Point Natural Area during the 1970s+/- with dredged material from the Lynnhaven Inlet. The City does not want to have additional net losses of tidal wetlands occur in the Lynnhaven Watershed, let alone have a net loss of tidal wetlands in the Lynnhaven Watershed due to a City project(s). This is in part why the City initiated the Pleasure House Point Tidal Wetland Mitigation Bank in 2012+/-.
