The Fayette County School System is trying to decide what to do with more than 33 acres of excess property behind Whitewater High School.

During Monday night’s board meeting, Superintendent John DeCotis explained that a developer was interested in purchasing the property and wanted to get feedback from the board about the 33.5-acre site.

One of the options would be to sell the property, said consultant Jerry Whitaker, but stipulate in the sales contract certain conditions, such as allowing science classes to use the wetlands area as an outside classroom. If the property were sold, the school system would have to build new detention ponds, since the current ones are on the surplus property, he explained.

“I just don’t understand why we would want to sell that property,” said board member Marion Key.

Another more creative option would be to place the land in a wetlands “bank,” retain ownership of the property and sell the wetlands credits to a consulting company.

According to the EPA’s Web site, a mitigation bank is a “wetland, stream, or other aquatic resource area that has been restored, established, enhanced, or (in certain circumstances) preserved for the purpose of providing compensation for unavoidable impacts to aquatic resources permitted under Section 404 or a similar state or local wetland regulation.”

The site says that a mitigation bank can be created when a government agency, corporation, nonprofit organization, or other entity undertakes these activities under a formal agreement with a regulatory agency. The 1995 Banking Guidance established a structure for banking that is characterized by four distinct components:

• The bank site: the physical acreage restored, established, enhanced, or preserved.

• The bank instrument: the formal agreement between the bank owners and regulators establishing liability, performance standards, management and monitoring requirements, and the terms of bank credit approval.

• The Mitigation Bank Review Team (MBRT): the interagency team that provides regulatory review, approval, and oversight of the bank.

• The service area: the geographic area in which permitted impacts can be compensated for at a given bank.

The site explains the value of a bank is defined in “compensatory mitigation credits.” A bank’s instrument identifies the number of credits available for sale and requires the use of ecological assessment techniques to certify that those credits provide the required ecological functions.

Mitigation banks are a form of “third-party” compensatory mitigation, in which the responsibility for compensatory mitigation implementation and success is assumed by a party other than the permittee. This transfer of liability has been a very attractive feature for Section 404 permit-holders, who would otherwise be responsible for the design, construction, monitoring, and ecological success of a compensatory mitigation site for a minimum of five years in addition to ensuring the site’s long-term protection, the Web site concludes.

Retired biologist Dennis Chase explained that would be similar to what happened with the Sam’s Lake property that was put in the hands of the Southern Conservation Trust.

“Hartsfield [International Airport] bought all the credits, and we retained the property. They gave us a check for $1 million and also did $1 million in upgrades to the property,” he explained.

The board asked Chase to work with the school system and explore the options of creating a mitigation bank.