PIESCES will provide compensatory mitigation for aquatic resource impacts that it accepts liability for within the compensation service areas as defined by DEP. The watershed-based compensation service areas apply to all entities (e.g., permittee responsible, banking and in lieu fee) performing compensatory mitigation as related to Title 25 PA Code Chapter 105.
DEP utilized the new State Water Plan that was developed as a result of the Water Resources Planning Act, No. 220, signed into law on December 16, 2002, that established a Statewide Water Resources Committee and six Regional Water Resources Committees that guided DEP since 2003 in the development of a new State Water Plan. The State Water Plan Subbasins provided the initial basis for the service area boundaries and with the revisions, it will be utilized for all compensatory mitigation efforts (e.g., permittee responsible, banking and in lieu fee). It is a historic and on-going level of planning within the Commonwealth and based upon program experience it provides a scale that is appropriate to ensure that the projects selected will be able to effectively compensate for environmental impacts across the entire service area.
PIESCES shall utilize the current established compensation service areas and any subsequent revisions approved by DEP. Future changes to the state service areas are coordinated with the Interagency Review Team (IRT) and USACE Districts prior to finalization. The current compensation service areas are provided below for reference.
