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KITTITAS COUNTY <br />DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS <br />PUBLIC WORKS — BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS <br />STUDY SESSION STAFF REPORT <br />STUDY SESSION DATE: August 10, 2020 <br />TOPIC: Advanced Mitigation Strategy for Kittitas County Environmental Impacts <br />ACTION REQUESTED: Support Staff Efforts <br />LEAD STAFF: <br />Mark R. Cook <br />RECOMMENDATION: <br />Support staff efforts developing a strategy memorandum to federal and state resource <br />agencies. <br />BRIEFLNG SUMMARY: <br />• The airport capital improvement plan build -out (including parallel taxiway) have <br />a need for wetland mitigation. <br />• We are not within the service area for any current wetland mitigation banks and <br />several wetland mitigation banks are currently stalled at the Seattle Army Corps <br />of Engineers (USACE). <br />• Timelines for bank establishment will not support the current airport capital <br />improvement plan with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Banks can <br />take five years or more to certify. <br />• Staff is proposing development of a Kittitas County Advanced Mitigation Plan <br />offsetting adverse environmental impacts of capital improvement projects. <br />• Public Works (PW) proposes developing a strategy memorandum to share with <br />federal and state resource agencies in the next several weeks (Jacobs <br />Environmental Task Order Contract). <br />• County owned sites at Hansen Ponds and at M Farm appear ideal for the planning <br />effort. <br />BACKGROUND: <br />Currently, four wetland bank mitigation proposals are stalled at United States Army <br />Corps of Engineers (USACE) in Region 10 (Seattle). USACE is also not currently <br />accepting applications for new mitigation banks. Several months ago, staff met with i <br />westside mitigation bank developer discussing current bank approval timelines. <br />During the most recent joint planning conference with the Federal Aviation <br />Administration (FAA) in December 2019, the FAA suggested programming $350,000 in <br />planning funds in 2022 towards "Wetland Mitigation for EA Projects" with another <br />$2,000,000 in 2023 towards implementation (EXHIBIT I — notes from joint planning <br />Page 1 of 4 <br />PUBLIC WORKS BOARD OF COUNTY CONIlVIISSIONERS WORK SESSION STAFF REPORT <br />