Proposed wetland bank in Prince George County sparks local outrage over loss of tidal protections.

Natural wetlands along the Elizabeth River. (Photo courtesy of Coastal Virginia Conservancy).

Hampton Roads environmental groups are alarmed over a proposed federal decision that they say could undermine decades of local tidal wetlands restoration and protection.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality are moving toward approval of a new wetland mitigation bank in Prince George County — 50 miles upstream from Hampton Roads — that would allow developers to purchase mitigation credits from outside the region.

Wetland mitigation banks are designed to compensate for environmental damage caused by permitted development projects. Developers buy credits from these banks to offset the impacts, typically by funding the creation or restoration of similar wetlands nearby.

The plan to outsource part of the process has prompted fierce opposition from conservationists, who warn that exporting these credits could lead to the continued loss of local saltwater tidal wetlands without restoring equivalent benefits in the region.

“This allows damages to local wetlands to still occur, but Hampton Roads will lose out on the extensive services and ecological benefits these wetland mitigation sites are designed to offset,” Coastal Virginia Conservancy, a Hampton Roads-based environmental group, said in a statement.

Helen Kuhns, the organization’s executive director, said in a phone interview that the proposed bank represents a dramatic break from long-established practices.

“In the past, the Army Corps has been very specific about the need for that mitigation to be done in the waterway, or at least in the life ecosystem that the damage is being done,” she said. “But the new bank that is proposed is in Prince George County, it’s 50 miles up the river. And the ecosystem there is not the same as it is here in Hampton Roads.”