Big Sandy Mitigation Bank

Location

Lawrence County, KY

Resource

Stream

Solution

Mitigation Bank

Status

Approved

Kevin Roush

Assistant Director of Business Development

BIG SANDY MITIGATION BANK is one of eight properties spanning 5,068 acres across eastern Kentucky where EIP is restoring ecological functions to degraded streams. Before EIP’s initiative, the artificially straightened channels, active erosion, and degraded riparian buffers severely impacted the water quality and habitat value of these systems. EIP has restored a more natural pattern, profile, and dimension to these streambeds, bringing back a meandering course with stable channel configuration — all permanently protected with a conservation easement. Along with Little Sandy Mitigation Bank, Big Sandy is one of two EIP stream restoration projects in this service area.

Credits from Big Sandy Mitigation Bank are approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to fulfill mitigation requirements of Section 404 Clean Water Act permits. Credit purchases also promote large-scale conservation and restoration of Kentucky’s stream corridors for future generations.

CREDITS AVAILABLE
Stream

SERVICE AREA
Portions of USACE Pre-Defined Service Areas 9 and 10, including HUC 8 Watersheds
– Ohio Brush-Whiteoak (0509020)
– Little Scioto-Tygarts (05090103)
– Little Sandy (05090104)
– Big Sandy (05070204)
– Lower Levisa (05070203)
– Tug (0507020)
– Upper Levisa (05070202)

Big Sandy Mitigation Bank

Before EIP's efforts, mining, logging, and road construction contributed to stream bank erosion and sedimentation, degrading water quality.

Big Sandy Mitigation Bank

With help from our local partners, EIP begins to reconstruct the stream to its natural patterns.

Big Sandy Mitigation Bank

A key component of stream restoration involves snags: dead or decaying trees that provide habitat along the riparian buffer.

Big Sandy Mitigation Bank

Following restoration, a jelly fungus known as wood ears (Auricularia auricula judae) begins to grow on decaying woody debris.

Big Sandy Mitigation Bank

One of our flourishing restored streams shows abundant native riparian vegetation that helps stabilize the streambanks.

Big Sandy Mitigation Bank

Post-construction, the stream springs back to life as riffle-pool complexes attract macroinvertebrates.

Across Appalachia, restored streams are bringing back flora and fauna

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beaver-creek-hydrology

Our Partners

Beaver Creek Hydrology’s expert team understands the complexities of stream restoration and addresses them with the highest degree of innovation and creativity. They work with EIP to help us design our large-scale stream restoration projects across Appalachia. BCH, one of the leading stream design firms in the country, invented the natural channel design software, BANKFULL, that efficiently tackles our large-scale projects. They have published and presented widely about hydrologic and hydraulic modeling.

SRS Stream Restoration Specialists

Stream Restoration Specialists, based in Corbin, Kentucky, is one of the best stream builders in the industry. EIP has worked on multiple projects with SRS’s expert construction team. Their team members from a range of backgrounds, including former road builders, coal miners, and self-taught stream contractors, are efficient, self-sufficient, and top-notch with project logistics and scheduling. Working in tandem with both EIP and Beaver Creek Hydrology, SRS’s stream building expertise takes design concepts and turns them into reality.

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