The board approved a $17.9 million agreement with Resource Environmental Solutions LLC, doing business as HGS, to restore and protect streams at a site in Oklahoma that will offset any environmental impact of ACCESS Oklahoma construction.
When a highway project disturbs streams or wetlands, the federal Clean Water Act requires a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and damage that can’t be avoided must be made up for by restoring streams somewhere else.
That restoration is measured in credits. OTA and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation have bought credits in the past from privately run restoration sites, known as mitigation banks, but those sites have little left to sell, Butler said.
HGS will create a restoration site dedicated to OTA’s needs, producing up to 118,000 credits at a fixed $152 each.
The ACCESS Oklahoma program will need close to 140,000.
The site will be near ACCESS Oklahoma projects, though it has not been chosen, Butler said.
In the past, OTA and ODOT sometimes bought land next to a project to restore and then had to maintain it. Under this agreement, the land stays in private hands, Echelle said.
“It remains someone else’s, not government property that we’re mitigating on or mitigating with,” Echelle said. “And it locks in the credit price.”
“This is a big deal” said board member John Jones. “I don’t know if everybody realizes how big a deal it is. But with all the upcoming work we have to do with the ACCESS program, to be able to count on this is a big win.”
