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1 Statement of Hardship(include any mitigating circumstances). When the golf course was originally approved and constructed beginning in 1997 there were 1.45 acres of wetland impacts, which required 2.90 acres of compensatory wetland mitigation. The golf course plans provided 7.27 acres of wetland mitigation with the excess 4.37 acre of credits intended for future golf course maintenance and City of Orono use. However the paperwork to have the excess credits deposited in the BWSR mitigation bank were never completed, and due to changes in the WCA and COE Section 404 rules can no longer be deposited. One of the main reasons these old wetland credits could not be used t in the current wetland banking system is the plant community is dominated by narrow leaf cattails which has been listed as a non-native, invasive species. Even the existing natural wetland is dominated by this non-native, invasive species which makes the prospect of any new mitigation in the immediate vicinity ' unlikely to meet the current WCA and COE vegetation standards. The MCWD Wetland Protection Rule, the WCA and COE Section 404 Rules ' follow the general principle that a wetland impact should be replaced with similar wetlands, and generally in the same watershed in order to maintain the set of wetland functions and values in a given locality. Where these policies diverge ' and cause hardship for this specific project site is when the Technical Evaluation Panel (TEP) and the COE conclude that even with best management practices, on-site mitigation will not result in a wetland that will meet the required ' replacement vegetation standards. In these situation the TEP and COE policy would be to consider wetland mitigation banking in order to assure that the wetland impacts are replaced at a minimum 2:1 ratio, with high quality wetland, ' within the same major watershed, prior to any wetland impacts actually occurring. Although the original golf course plans have shown that wetlands nearly identical to the proposed impacted wetland can be created on-site, the presence of the non-native, invasive, species would not allow any mitigation credits to be assigned under the current version of WCA (MCWD rules) or the COE Section 404 program. There are no other feasible and prudent alternative locations on- site that would allow for sufficient wetland creation/restoration that would both meet the MCWD citing requirements and the required vegetation standards. The TEP, including MCWD staff and COE have reviewed Spring Hill Golf Clubs proposal for on-site mitigation and determined the preferred option would be to replace the wetland impacts thorough the mitigation banking system. There are no wetland banking credits available in the MCWD so Spring Hill Golf Club ' proposes to use credits from the Heritage Woods Bank. The Heritage Woods Bank was selected because it is considered to have relatively high functions and values. The Heritage Woods mitigation bank site is located just 11 miles north- northwest of the proposed wetland impact site. A detailed analysis of the bank site selection process is included in the permit application narrative. Initially only a portion of the mitigation requirements were going to be replaced using banking, but based on TEP and COE recommendation , the permit application is being t modified by this variance request to use banking to meet all of the current mitigation requirements. Spring Hill Golf Course has verified that the bank site has sufficient credits available for the entire mitigation requirements. The TEP 3