Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Wetland Mitigation Performance Measure for Federal-Aid Highway Projects
Fiscal Year (FY) 2002

FHWA Natural and Human Environment Goal: To protect and enhance the natural environment and communities affected by highway transportation.

In support of this goal, FHWA is committed to replace, on a Federal-aid program-wide basis, an average of 1.5 acres of wetland for every acre affected where impacts are unavoidable. This is further demonstrated by an agency commitment under the Federal Clean Water Action Plan (CWAP) to provide compensatory mitigation on Federal-aid highway projects that results in a net increase of wetland acreage of at least 50 percent over a 10-year period from 1996 to 2006.

Background

The FHWA field offices annually collect the information pertinent to the documentation of this wetland mitigation indicator. Documenting agency performance toward achieving this indicator allows a comparison of the area of wetland unavoidably impacted to the area of wetland provided through compensatory wetland mitigation efforts. Currently, the most direct and straightforward way to gather and present the information is on an acreage basis.

As a result, progress during FY 1996-2001, and now, 2002 has been measured for Federal-aid projects nationwide by comparing the total acres of wetland impacted by projects in the reporting State programs to the acres of wetland provided as compensatory mitigation. The FHWA staff continues to recommend that these data be used with caution, and that continued evaluation of the success and performance of compensatory mitigation sites is necessary to substantiate the achievement of our long-range strategic performance objectives. However, FHWA staff asserts the current data, in conjunction with similar data compiled for FY 1996-2001, provide a valuable performance indicator of the Federal-aid highway program in achieving an immediate increase of wetland area, and is strongly indicative that a long-term net gain of wetland functions and values is being realized within the federally-funded highway program.

Results for FY 2002

For FY 2002, 47 States and Puerto Rico reported a total of 5,211.6 acres of mitigation provided for Federal-aid highway projects, with unavoidable wetland impacts totaling 1,945.8 acres. This results in a directly calculated mitigation ratio of 2.68. Using the FY 2002 data in a simple ratio calculation, FHWA staff estimate that impacts to wetland in the Federal-aid highway program accounted for approximately 2,070 acres of wetland loss, and 5,544 acres of compensatory mitigation (from individual Section 404 permits for all 50 States and Puerto Rico). The estimates for all States, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia were made using the data from the 48 reporting division offices divided by the fraction of divisions reporting: 48/51= 0.94. (Note: the District of Columbia reported 0 acres and was not considered in this analysis due to its small relative area.)

This data does not provide a complete record of wetland impacts attributed to all federally-funded highway projects, but is a measure of the Federal-aid program performance against the "net gain of wetland" objective. On a program-wide basis, the FY 2002 figures indicate that Federal-aid highway projects provided 2.68 (rounded to 2.7) acres of compensatory wetland mitigation for each acre of impact.

Summary

The reports submitted indicate that our compensatory mitigation ratio is approximately 2.7:1 for the Federal-aid highway program on a national basis. This ratio is comparable for wetland impact: mitigation data for the Federal-aid program collected in FY 1996-2001, which average approximately 2.3:1.

The mitigation ratio and mitigation/impact figures are a strong indication that the project eligibility and funding provisions for wetland mitigation originally enacted in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 and subsequently strengthened in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), continue to be effective in enhancing the natural environment. The FHWA staff maintains that those provisions continue to be helpful in accomplishing the Nation's environmental goals under the CWAP initiatives and the Federal Wetland Management Plan. The FHWA staff purport the data indicated above demonstrate the opportunities for continued flexibility in mitigating wetland impacts through other wetland conservation programs that are eligible for TEA-21 funds. This could support streamlining objectives, yield further cost efficiencies, timesavings, and ecological benefits in mitigating the wetland impacts of highway projects.