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ORDINANCE Page 17 of 19 <br />“Wetland mitigation bank” or “mitigation bank” means a site where wetlands are restored, <br />created, enhanced, or, in exceptional circumstances, preserved, expressly for the purpose of <br />providing compensatory mitigation in advance of authorized impacts to similar resources. Banks <br />typically involve the consolidation of many small wetland mitigation projects into a larger, <br />potentially more ecologically valuable site. Such consolidation encourages greater diversity of <br />habitat and wetland functions. It also helps create more sustainable systems. Banks provide a <br />greater likelihood of success over permittee-responsible mitigation projects, since the banks are <br />up and running before unavoidable damage occurs to a wetland(s) at another site a site or suite <br />of sites where resources are restored, created, enhanced, and/or preserved, for the purpose of <br />providing compensatory mitigation for impacts. In general, a mitigation bank sells compensatory <br />mitigation credits to permittees whose obligation to provide compensatory mitigation is then <br />transferred to the mitigation bank sponsor. The operation and use of a mitigation bank are <br />governed by a mitigation banking instrument. <br />“Wetland mosaic” means an area with a concentration of multiple small wetlands, in which each <br />patch of wetland is less than one acre; patches are less than 100 feet from each other; and areas <br />delineated as wetland are more than 50 percent of the total area of the entire mosaic, including <br />uplands and open water. <br />“Wetlands” means those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a <br />frequency and duration sufficient to support, and under normal circumstances do support, a <br />prevalence of vegetation adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Regulated wetlands <br />generally include swamps, marshes, ponds, bogs and similar areas. Regulated wetlands do not <br />include those artificial wetlands intentionally created from nonwetland sites, including, but not <br />limited to, irrigation and drainage ditches, grass-lined swales, canals, detention facilities, <br />wastewater treatment facilities, farm ponds, and landscape amenities, or those wetlands <br />created after July 1, 1990, that were unintentionally created as a result of the construction of a <br />road, street, or highway. Wetlands created as mitigation and wetlands modified for approved <br />land use activities shall be considered as regulated wetlands. For identifying and delineating <br />regulated wetlands, the city shall use the Washington State Wetland Identification and <br />Delineation Manual. <br />“Wetlands,” for the purpose of inventory mapping, means lands transitional between terrestrial <br />and aquatic systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land is <br />covered by shallow water. Wetlands must have one or more of the following three attributes: <br />1. At least periodically, the soil supports predominantly hydrophytes; <br />2. The substrate is predominantly undrained hydric soil; <br />3. The substrate is nonsoil and saturated with water at some time during the growing <br />season of each year. <br />Wetlands include all areas waterward from the wetland edge. Where the vegetation has been <br />removed, or substantially altered, a wetland shall be determined by the presence or evidence of <br />hydric or organic soils. <br />“Wetland” or “Wetlands” means areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or <br />groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal