Environmental Assessment, Permitting and Mitigation

The Metropolitan Airport Authority of Rock Island County proposed to construct various airfield, landslide, and drainage improvement projects over the following several years at Quad City International Airport, as part of the airport’s Capital Improvement Program. Another important component of this project was to address open/standing water and other wildlife hazard attractants at the airport to safely accommodate existing and future aeronautical demand.

To support these projects, the CMT environmental team conducted an Environmental Assessment (EA) and completed Individual 404/401 permits at areas of standing water that attract wildlife. These areas totaled 12,679 linear feet of stream and 5.1 acres of wetlands.

The EA had early and ongoing agency coordination due to the number of impacts and limited options for remediation to ensure environmental stewardship. This work included a comprehensive mitigation site selection process to identify potential permittee-responsible stream and wetland mitigation sites. The team used the Illinois Stream Mitigation Method to evaluate the impact credits needed and the mitigation credits necessary. A mitigation bank site ultimately opened in the airport service area, which covered the mitigation needs.