Catawba/Wilderness Lake Mitigation Bank
South Carolina
Watershed
03050103, 03050101, 03050104
Water & Land Solutions, LLC (WLS), formally Palustrine Group, is developing and managing a private stream and wetland mitigation bank on an approximate 680.27 acres of land within the parent parcel of 1,493.51 acres of land owned by SCP Catawba, LLC located in Chester County, South Carolina. The Catawba Mitigation Bank (CMB) will provide numerous ecological and water quality benefits within the Lower Catawba River watershed Subbasin (HUC 03050103) and Piedmont Ecoregion. The CMB will consist of stream restoration, enhancement and preservation; wetland enhancement and preservation; riparian buffer enhancement and upland buffer enhancement. The CMB will restore and enhance 11,766 linear feet of stream, 15.53 acres of wetland, and 380.89 acres of aquatic resource buffer. The CMB will also protect an additional 38,429 linear feet of fully functional perennial and intermittent stream, 12.47 acres of floodplain wetland, and 198.17 acres of aquatic resource buffer.
During Construction
Service Area(s):
Lower Catawba HUC 03050103 (primary)
Upper Catawba HUC 03050101 (secondary)
Wateree HUC 03050104 (secondary)
State:
SC
Available Credit Type(s):
Stream and Wetland
The goals of the Bank Site include preserving 39,207 linear feet of stream channel, restoring or enhancing 12,338 linear feet of stream channel, preserving 3.08 acres of wetland, enhancing 6.55 acres of wetland, planting enhancement of 429.08 acres of aquatic resource upland and riparian buffer and preservation of another 210.15 acres of aquatic resource upland and riparian buffer. Specifically, the mitigation actions associated with the Bank will:
- Protect and improve the conservation values and landscape setting of the Bank Site and surrounding conservation lands by creating a core of preserved, enhanced, and restored aquatic resources.
- Remove threats of silviculture and residential development to stream and wetland resources with the much more restrictive Bank Site CE.
- Provide longitudinal connectivity for fish and wildlife in two perennial watersheds that are currently impounded.
- Maintain and enhance forests of the Piedmont Ecoregion and their associated plant and animal communities.
- Reduce habitat fragmentation.
- Preserve and restore and/or enhance numerous aquatic resources, including tributaries, of the Catawba River, which is considered the fourth most stressed river in the United States by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
- Enhance aquatic resource buffers.
- Expand, enhance, and increase protection of riparian buffers beyond those specified in the existing CE;
