This confidential client constructed 24 acres of wetlands to mitigate the loss of naturally occurring wetlands due to municipal waste landfill construction and operations. Blazosky Associates, Inc. (BAI) performed the remaining years of monitoring the mitigated wetlands. During the initial sampling events, it became apparent that the original monitoring plan was needlessly extensive in its scope and did not serve the client’s or the regulatory agency’s best interests. BAI revised the original monitoring plan to re-focus on the overall success of the completed mitigation areas. As a result of this revised performance based plan [approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PaDEP)], the client realized a substantial cost savings over the remaining years of monitoring.

Monitoring and sampling of the mitigated wetlands involved the following ongoing tasks:

    Plant cover and survival estimates
    Water quality and water level data
    Photographic documentation of wetland progression
    Bird and wildlife observations and counts
    Quarterly and annual monitoring reports to the PaDEP
    and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)

The five year monitoring plan was completed and the sites were all considered successful. Bonding was reduced or eliminated. In conjunction with revising the monitoring plan, BAI assisted the client in reducing their regulatory obligation of wetland mitigation required by the original wetland permits. With cooperation from the USACE and the PaDEP, the required future mitigation acreage was reduced to half of the original acreage.