WSS has extensive Nationwide experience with wetland and other aquatic resource issues for projects involving transportation; energy; agriculture; commercial, mining, industrial, and port development; residential development; recreation; and hazardous waste cleanup. Among others, WSS has managed or served as a technical expert for projects involving:
• transportation, such as major highways and large rail line extensions;
• energy, such as wind turbine fields, ground-mounted solar panel fields, oil and natural gas (including hydraulic fracturing) exploration and production, hydropower, and electric and natural gas transmission lines;
• agriculture, such as row crops, turf farm and cranberry farms;
• port development;
• solid waste landfills;
• commercial, shopping mall, industrial park developments;
• residential subdivision development;
• recreation, such as golf courses, ski area expansion, and rail trails; • surface mining, such as gold, nickel, iron, copper; and,
• CERCLA cleanup remedies.
Work on these projects involved, among other things:
• Advising clients regarding federal Clean Water Act and state wetlands protection statute jurisdictional determinations.
• Thorough evaluation of alternatives to suggest approaches to avoid and/or reduce adverse impacts to wetlands and other aquatic resources while still achieving project objectives.
• Comprehensive assessment of potential direct, secondary, and cumulative adverse impacts to wetlands and other aquatic resources at the site and watershed/landscape scales.
• Among others, assessment included potential adverse impacts to:
– fish and wildlife populations and their habitat, including federal and state threatened and endangered species;
– hydrologic regime, including storm water runoff quantity, frequency, and patterns;
– water quality, including nutrient issues;
– soil and substrate;
– physical and chemical characteristics; and,
– recreational opportunities.
• Development of compensatory mitigation approaches, including monitoring plans, to address all unavoidable adverse impacts. Mitigation approaches always incorporate the anticipated effects of climate change.
WSS also has wide-ranging experience with providing training for consultants, federal and state agency regulatory staff, municipal commissions and their staff, and legislators and their staff. Training topics include:
• general wetland and aquatic resources ecology;
• wetland identification and delineation;
• wetland and other aquatic resource ecological assessment;
• creation and restoration of wetlands, streams, seasonal (vernal) pools;
• Clean Water Act Section 404 regulatory program, including implementing and related regulations; and,
• wetland-dependent wildlife ecology.
WSS works throughout New England and the Northeast, as well as numerous states across the country.