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Ditch Authority explores limited repairs on County Ditch 14 to avoid costly wetland mitigation
Summary
Benton Countys Ditch Authority reviewed repair options for County Ditch 14; staff said full-depth repairs in four locations could require roughly $370,000 in wetland mitigation credits, while a narrower vegetative-management approach might cost about $56,800 for one location and avoid credit purchases. The Technical Evaluation Panel (TEP) must still review any "no-loss" application.
The Benton County Ditch Authority spent an extended portion of the meeting reviewing repair work on County Ditch 14 and four locations where full-depth cleaning was previously left out because of adjacent wetlands.
Engineering staff (Houston Engineering referenced) and county highway staff explained that one 200-foot no-repair section (near Stations 84+00 to 86+00 in the engineers notes) contains a type-3 flow-through wetland. Staff calculated that a full-depth clean at that location would impact about 0.24 acres and, at a 2:1 replacement ratio required by the Board of Water and Soil Resources, would require purchasing roughly 0.48 acres of wetland credits. Using internal estimates of credit value, staff said wetland-credit costs for that section would be about $48,000 and total project cost to do a full-depth clean there would be about $56,800.
Staff said the remaining three no-repair locations are depressional/open-water wetlands; fully repairing all four sites to the full design depth could require mitigation credits and related costs totaling roughly $370,000. Because of those potential costs, staff discussed an alternative: vegetative management permitted under the Wetland Conservation Act (removing standing cattails and root mass without lowering the constructed elevation of the channel). Engineers and Bowser (state/local wetland reviewers referenced in the discussion) indicated that vegetation removal with limited root-ball extraction may be acceptable under TEP review and would markedly lower immediate mitigation costs.
Commissioners expressed concern about how deep root removal would be allowed (six to 18 inches was discussed), potential for downstream erosion if the channel incises, and whether contractor access would disturb buffers. Staff recommended preparing a no-loss/TEP application and obtaining a contractor change-order estimate so the work could proceed quickly if TEP approves. No final Ditch Authority determination on full-depth repairs versus vegetation management was recorded at the meeting; staff sought guidance on how the authority wished to proceed and offered to obtain contractor pricing and complete the regulatory application.
Direct quote
"... it just shows the idiocracy of some of this stuff. We're fighting against each other for credits and driving our wetland cost up to a $100,000 an acre in our service area," a commissioner said during discussion of credit availability and cost.
Next steps
Staff will prepare and submit a vegetative-management (no-loss) application to the Technical Evaluation Panel and will contact the contractor (Helmet Construction referenced) for a change-order estimate to provide the authority a more concrete price to approve, should the authority decide to proceed. Any work that proceeds will be assessed to benefited owners as part of ditch-assessment procedures.
