RUMFORD – By year’s end, planning boards, local conservation organizations and land trusts across the state could gain a new tool to protect, enhance or restore wetlands, streams, rivers, ponds, lakes or vernal pools.

Until Nov. 1, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking public comment on the proposed use of a first-of-its-kind, in-lieu fee program named the Maine Natural Resource Mitigation Fund.

It’s like the Land for Maine’s Future program. However, instead of taxpayer dollars funding that program, developers would be paying fees into the in-lieu fee program to compensate for unavoidable impacts to state waterways, wetlands, wildlife habitat, natural resources and vernal pools from development authorized by the Corps’ New England District and/or the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

“When the fund gets to where you can do valuable things with it, then those funds are expended through a revolving bank account to be used for ecologically important things in the same geographical area,” Corps senior project manager Jay Clement said Wednesday afternoon by telephone from Manchester.

The fund will managed by The Nature Conservancy, overseen by federal and state agencies.

“If someone was building a Wal-Mart in Rumford and wanted to fill in a couple acres of wetland or culvert a stream or alter its flow, there would be an obligation to compensate.

“Usually, this involves creating new wetlands to replace those lost or restoring or improving another wetland by cleanup or improving flows. On a grand scale involving the Wal-Marts of this world, or transportation projects, or airports, where the impacts are fairly large, there would be an obligation to provide compensation that equals the large scale,” Clement said.

The Maine Department of Transportation has a similar program, but its mitigation is more project-based, whereas in-lieu fee is money based.

“Planning boards would certainly want to be aware of this program. Many towns either have in place or have adopted similar regulations for regulating wetland fill. They’ve either mirrored regulations of the DEP or Corps or they have something very similar,” Clement said.

He described the program as a win-win concept that helps developers by providing certainty to the development industry in that it removes some of the guesswork from the compensation game.

“It’s also a good thing for Maine in the long term. Hopefully, some good resources will be protected, enhanced or restored. … It’s a sound ecological thing,” Clement said.

Recipients of permits or authorizations for projects in Maine may be eligible to use the in-lieu fee program to satisfy mitigation requirements of the Corps and/or state program. It would also be an option available to the applicant instead of completing project-specific mitigation. However, its use would be contingent on Corps and/or state approval.

A draft of the agreement can be found on the Corps Web site at http://www.nae.usace.army.mil. Select Regulatory/Permitting and then Mitigation, and choose “Draft Maine In-Lieu Fee Agreement.”

Public comments should be forwarded to Ruth Ladd at [email protected] or by calling 800-343-4789 or addressed to: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District, Regulatory Division (Attn: Ruth Ladd), 696 Virginia Road, Concord, MA 01742-2751.