NEWPORT —
The creation of a wetland mitigation bank within the Vermillion Rise Mega Park will help partially fund restoration of natural habitats as part of a reuse plan for the former and deactivated Newport Army Chemical Depot.
The mega park site covers 7,155 acres or 11 square miles in Vermillion County, just south of Newport.
Officials with the V3 Companies, an ecological and engineering/design and construction firm; the Indiana Department of Natural Resources; and the Newport Chemical Depot Reuse Authority, hosted an open house on Saturday to outline a plan to place about 2,725 acres into conservation efforts, including 1,705 acres that will be donated to the DNR as a conservation area.
“Anyone impacting wetlands — be it a developer, a roadway or a power company — needs federal and state permits and needs to replace those wetlands at 150 percent of size. We can develop wetland acres that can be sold as wetland mitigation credits on the open market,” said Thomas E. Slowinski, vice president of V3’s Chicago-based Wetlands and Ecology division.
Prior to mitigation banks, projects such as new roadways had to find nearby sites to convert into wetlands. Mitigation banks allow a developer to buy credits that meet federal standards for restoring wetlands.
“The federal government actually now has a preference for mitigation banks for wetland mitigation as does the state [of Indiana],” Slowinski said. “It is a great way to restore properties, generate some revenue and benefit the community and people who need mitigation credits,” he said.
The U.S. Corps of Engineers has an online database of all mitigation banks, Slowinski said, and Indiana does not have many — only about four. The benefit to such a bank is long-term management.
“This way you pay your check, you have your permit and go do your project and not worry about the long-term commitment,” Slowinski said.
Potential markets include the Indiana Department of Transportation, energy companies along the Wabash River, treatment plants and other industry. “The key is to be able to sell credits, which might be a challenge in the short-term,” Slowinski said, as projects have to have an impact on wetlands in the Wabash River basin.
The overall plan is to have 105 acres of wetland, plus 191 acres of buffer, which generates about 150 mitigation credits. “We have phase one set up to have 54 acres and 70 mitigation credits. The one good thing about the program, once you get your approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, you can sell 30 percent of your credits up front to help fund the restoration work,” Slowinski said.
“It is a long-term process, but it is a win-win,” he said.
In Muncie, a 40-acre site, has wetland mitigation credits that cost about $45,000 per credit, Slowinski said. Other sites have credits as high as $60,000 or more per acre, depending on demand.
“That is probably higher than here,” he said of the Vermillion mega site. “We really don’t know what the market will bear at this point. We are talking about $25,000 [per mitigation credit] as our first attempt at setting a revenue basis. We still have not gotten into the market evaluation yet. We have a good supply; the demand needs to be there,” he said.
It will take about a year to obtain regulatory approval for the mitigation bank, Slowinski said. It will then take about two years to build. That involves breaking drainage tiles and prairie seeding, then managing native vegetation.
Jack Fenoglio, president of the Depot Reuse Authority, said job creation is also a primary focus of the mega site, which he hopes can someday employ more than 2,000 people.
“Having the conservation area available is a huge benefit to employees who can enjoy nature on their breaks from work,” Fenoglio said. The natural area “will resemble the landscape of Indiana about 200 years ago — hardwood forests, prairielands and wetlands,” he said.
About 40 percent of the former chemical depot land area will be natural open spaces.
Tom Swinford, DNR ecologist, said about 1,020 acres of open space will be preserved as part of the Indiana Bat protection program. “We already have maternity colonies” at the site. “This is a federally endangered species. This is an opportunity” to further protect the bat, Swinford said.
Unique and rare flora and fauna will be preserved on the DNR site, he said, such as the yellow lady slipper orchid, lots of woodland plants, grassland birds and forest songbirds. The wetlands will help restore a population of prairie amphibians such northern leopard frogs.
The grassland prairie will be about 600 acres. It will take about 15 years to fully develop, Swinford said.
John Davis, deputy director of DNR’s land management division, said Vermillion Rise is the fourth reuse authority the state has worked with in developing conservation areas. Others include the former Grissom Air Force Base, Ft. Benjamin Harrison and Charlestown Army Ammunition site.
Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.
Local & Bistate
Related Photos
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Wetlands: The future site of wetlands of the Vermillion Rise Mega Park.
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Mega: Department of Natural Resources Deputy Director John M. Davis speaks during the open house event for the Vermillion Rise Mega Park on Saturday morning.
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Wetlands: Thomas E. Slowinski, Vice President Wetlands and Ecology, V3 Companies, gives a brief presentation during the opening of the Mega Park on Saturday morning.
Discussion
Bank On It: Vermillion Rise Mega Park wetland mitigation bank will help fund part of reuse plan
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