Bear Creek Mitigation Wetland Development

In 2005 DOE's Oak Ridge Operations Office constructed an extension to an existing haul road. Prior to construction, surveys of sensitive resources were conducted to determine the potential impact of the road. The route crossed a wide variety of habitats, with three quarters of the impacted area consisting of disturbed or very common Oak Ridge Reservation habitat types. The most significant natural resource disturbance was potential aquatic and wetland impacts near Bear Creek and its major tributaries.

The haul road corridor crossed 15 wetlands, comprising a total of 1.35 acres. Mitigation to compensate for these wetland losses from the project included:

• avoidance and minimization of wetland impacts (e.g., erosion control, special culverting options, bridging options to avoid wetland and stream impacts),
• wetland creation and restoration (i.e., in-kind mitigation of 0.2 acres), and
• stream/riparian restoration (i.e., stream bypass of weir and stream structural improvements; out-of-kind stream mitigation).