United States Department of Transportation
i
Jurisdictional roadside ditches.
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2015-06-01
[PDF-4.25 MB]
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Abstract:Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) mandates that state agencies and other entities perform compensatory mitigation when
their activities impair jurisdictional waters. In the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) is
required to pay in-lieu fees or purchase stream mitigation credits when a roadside ditch is impaired or relocated as part of a road
construction project. In-lieu fees and stream mitigation credits are costly, and ditches that have suffered degraded habitat and loss of
hydrogeomorphic functionality are treated as total losses when they are impacted by construction and maintenance activities. This
raises the question of whether the United States Corps of Engineers (USACE) would be receptive to alternative mitigation and
monitoring practices that impose a less stringent financial burden on the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, but which still comply
with CWA regulations. This report discusses methodologies used to evaluate the quality of instream and riparian habitat, Section 404
of the CWA and its implications for mitigation of lost or damaged jurisdictional ditches, and the strategies that have been used by
other states to fulfill their Section 404 mitigation requirements. We highlight mitigation practices that depart from the norm and
which place a less onerous financial burden on state transportation agencies. KYTC officials presented this report’s key findings to
the USACE Louisville District Office in January 2015 in an effort to receive approval to experiment with novel restoration
techniques. The USACE granted KYTC license to implement these techniques on a project-by-project basis. Before implementation
on each project, the Cabinet must receive formal approval from USACE officials. Although this was not the blanket mandate that
KYTC hoped for, it indicated the Louisville District is willing to study the effectiveness of alternative mitigation strategies. Despite
the Cabinet’s request, USACE officials did not approve a plan to reduce post-restoration monitoring requirements. KTC researchers
suggested that KYTC perform exhaustive monitoring of the performance of completed project that used alternative mitigation
techniques. Having information on the short-, medium-, and long-term performance of these sites could – if the results are promising
– pave the way to the wider adoption of alternative mitigation practices and could eventually reduce the level of post-restoration
monitoring required by the USACE.
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