Each year, the public in Minnesota and Wisconsin undertake projects that affect the nation's aquatic resources.  Often these projects require a Clean Water Act or Rivers and Harbors Act permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before work can proceed.  The Corps reviews these projects to ensure environmental impacts to aquatic resources are avoided or minimized as much as possible. Consistent with the administration’s goal of “no net loss of aquatic resources” a Corps permit may require a property owner to replace the loss of existing aquatic resource functions from a project through compensatory mitigation.

What Is Compensatory Mitigation?
**Hover over highlighted text for the definition**

Compensatory mitigation is the restoration
(re-establishment or rehabilitation), establishment (creation), enhancement, and/or in certain circumstances preservation of aquatic resources for the purpose of offsetting impacts which remain after all appropriate and practicable avoidance and minimization has been achieved.   Compensatory mitigation may come from three sources: mitigation banks, in-lieu fee programs, and permittee responsible mitigation. Refer to the chart below for more information regarding these sources.  In general, mitigation should be located within the same watershed as the impact site and should be located where it is most likely to successfully replace lost functions and services.  The Corps considers the type and location options for mitigation in the following order although flexibility in approach can be exercised on a project-specific basis: mitigation bank credits, in-lieu fee program credits, permittee responsible mitigation under a watershed approach, permittee responsible mitigation through on-site and in-kind mitigation,  and permittee responsible mitigation through off-site and/or out-of-kind mitigation.