Insurance to Preserve Wetlands

Under a program administered by the Army Corps of Engineers, developers and others can create and/or trade mitigation banking instruments to offset wetlands lost through road, building or other construction. 2008 regulations require insurance or other forms of financial assurance (e.g., LOCs, bonds, escrows, trusts) and, in a 2016 White Paper, the Corps recognized that insurance avoids the other forms’ larger problems: risk of non-renewal after their typically 1-year terms (v. 10-year insurance terms); the need to tie up capital as collateral to secure or fund the assurance; higher administrative costs; and potential Miscellaneous Receipts Act violation.

In part because wetlands Insurance is entirely unregulated as to its language and rates, policies offered through early 2020 were grossly deficient (e.g., with no coverage provided for the first year, and at prices at well above a reasonable rate even for quality insurance). BDCI — whose Founder in 2018 helped the Corps replace a similarly deficient policy (lacking coverage that was statutorily-required to begin construction of the $1.7B NGA-West campus) — in 2020 began working with Markel to create a best-in-class alternative.

Additional password protected wetlands-related materials can be found here.