A closer look at the borough’s Wetland Bank Lands program

At our last Matanuska-Susitna Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting, we received a briefing about a management program within the borough that I didn’t even know existed. I’m still not sure I completely understand the program, but it was brought to our attention because of some failures on the part of the federal government enforcement agency tasked with overseeing the program.

The Mat-Su Borough was granted more than 355,000 acres of land from the state of Alaska as part of a Municipal Land Entitlement. These lands encompass all types of properties, ranging from mountains to wetlands. The more sensitive wetlands have been classified under the designation of “Wetland Bank Lands.” Quoting from the handout materials, “These areas will be used for wetlands mitigation by placing them in a bank so other less sensitive wetland areas can be developed.”

Continuing, “The benefits are two-fold; the bank will protect and preserve the area and at the same time this ‘banked’ land will offer land owners and developers an opportunity to purchase banked wetlands, which will remain undeveloped. In exchange, the land owner will be able to avoid lengthy and costly mitigation requirements.”

The handout lists four distinct benefits to this wetlands bank program. They are: “’Wetland Bank Lands’ are ecologically valuable lands that protect and support fish and wildlife habitat, and water recharge and filtering areas important for human use.” Second, they “provide a source of revenue (fair market value) for the Borough.” Third, it “streamlines the wetland mitigation process for landowners and developers in the Borough, which in turn will allow development to continue in other less sensitive areas.” And fourth, it “provides outdoor educational opportunities for understanding the role of wetlands in the environment.”

The wetland bank lands classification doesn’t apply to any private lands or those owned by other government agencies. It only applies to Mat-Su Borough-owned properties.

This program got started in the early 2000’s. If I understood correctly, the Su-Knik Mitigation Bank (SKMB) was approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Environmental Protection Agency in April of 2009 for the umbrella agreement and for the Big Lake South project.

This is all background information to understand the current concerns the borough has for another project.

The Donlin Creek gold mine project is currently seeking permits to allow the construction of approximately 115 miles of access roads and a pipeline across SKMB lands classified as both primary and secondary service areas. The Compensatory Mitigation Plan the Donlin folks submitted to the USACE does not appear to be following the compensatory mitigation requirements as set out in something known as the 2008 Final Rule. Specifically, the proposal is ecologically inappropriate because the Permittee-Responsible Mitigation is outside the service area where the impacts occur within the borough boundary.

The proposed route will affect many of the anadromous streams and watersheds within these protected service areas. The USACE is the government agency tasked with reviewing and approving appropriate compensatory mitigations for the Donlin project.

From what we were told at the meeting, the USACE has a poor track record of enforcing the Clean Water Act requirements specified in these wetlands bank programs. The borough’s concern is that, rather than requiring avoidance or minimization of damages to critical wetlands and compensation for the impacts of development which can’t be avoided or minimized (as required by the Clean Water Act), the USACE has been allowing an accumulation of impacts to aquatic resources within the borough over time without the required compensatory mitigation. This non-compensatory compensation situation is currently what is being proposed for the Donlin project.

If you want to learn more about this situation, go to the borough website atwww.matsugov.us and look for “Wetland Bank Lands.” You can also contact Ray Nix, Natural Resource Manager, Mat-Su Borough at ray.nix@matsugov.us or 907-861-7869. You can also contact the private sector consultant hired by the borough to work on this wetlands bank project by calling Jerome Ryan, Manager, Su-Knik Mitigation Bank at 415-990-0525.

The Alaska Board of Fisheries held a one-day emergency meeting earlier this week to address a couple of issues. One was the submission of an emergency petition by the Mt. Yenlo Fish and Game Advisory Committee asking that subsistence fishing at the fish wheel on the Yentna River be allowed. Currently, the harvest of king salmon in Unit 4 is not allowed.

Subsistence harvest of king salmon along the west side of Upper Cook Inlet has not been restricted. When I find out the results, I’ll mention them here.