When applying for a permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, if your proposed project cannot avoid or sufficiently minimize effects to wetlands or other waters of the U.S, you must compensate for the impacts. Compensatory mitigation provides methods to offset these unavoidable losses due to project impacts. This is done through credits purchased from a mitigation band or an in-lieu fee fund, or permittee responsible mitigation.

Information on Compensatory Mitigation program can be found on the USACE Headquarters webpage here: USACE HQ Mitigation Information

Federal resource agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, started an initiative several years ago to better track compensatory mitigation banks and in-lie fee programs/projects. The product resulting from this initiative is the RIBITS (Regulatory In-Lieu Fee and Bank Information Tracking System) website. This website was developed by the Corps Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA). All banks and in-lieu fee programs/sites and Norfolk District establishment information are available in RIBITS.

Information on the USACE Regulatory In-lieu fee and Wetland Bank Tracking System (RIBITS) can be found here: RIBITS

The Unified Stream Methodology (“USM”) was developed as a result of a collaborative effort between the Norfolk District and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, to establish a unified and consistent method for use in Virginia, to assess proposed stream impacts and determine the appropriate amount of stream compensatory mitigation needed to offset those impacts.

The USM manual and forms can be found on the Forms and Documents page.

USM Frequently Asked Questions and Answers