State of Oklahoma In-Lieu Fee Stream & Wetland Mitigation Program

Terra Foundation, Inc. is the Sponsor of the State of Oklahoma In-Lieu Fee Stream & Wetland Mitigation Program.  The goal of the In-Lieu Fee Program is to satisfy the compensatory mitigation requirements of permits issued under Section 404 and/or 401 of the Clean Water Act and/or Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 by creating centralized in-lieu fee mitigation project within the State of Oklahoma.  The natural resources goal of the program will be to restore, establish, enhance and preserve jurisdictional streams, wetlands, riparian areas, lakes and ponds.  These activities will improve and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of Oklahoma’s aquatic resources.

In-lieu fee (ILF) mitigation, like mitigation banking, is a form of centralized mitigation where permittees pay a mitigation provider to produce the needed wetland and/or stream mitigation that compensates for the permittee’s impacts to those habitats.  The in-lieu fee mitigation provider then creates a mitigation site that simultaneously satisfies multiple permittees’ obligations, thus creating larger mitigation sites that offer better water quality improvements and wildlife habitat opportunities than individual permittee responsible mitigation sites.  In-lieu fee mitigation differs from mitigation banking in two main regards. First, in-lieu fee mitigation projects can be initiated up to three years after their first credit sale while mitigation bank sites are generally established before or very near the time of their first credit sale. Second, in-lieu fee providers are non-profits or governmental agencies while mitigation bankers are private sector organizations.

As a part of this In-Lieu Fee Program, the Sponsor is responsible for the implementation, performance and long-term management of in-lieu fee compensatory mitigation project sites.  Additionally, the Sponsor assumes responsibility for a permittee’s compensatory mitigation requirements once that permittee has secured the appropriate number and resource type of credits from the Sponsor and the Corps has received sufficient documentation. 

Our initial service areas include: Canadian B, Canadian C, Beaver/North Canadian D, Beaver/North Canadian E, Lower Arkansas A, and Lower Arkansas B.  These service areas encompass most of the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metropolitan areas.  To find out more about the In-Lieu Fee Program or to get a price quote please contact our Program Director, Craig Gump.