Blog

Environmental

What Is an IRT (Interagency Review Team)?

An Interagency Review Team reviews mitigation banks from prospectus through instrument. The Corps chairs it. An IRT is review and approval committee for banks.

Aerial view of a barge-mounted crane driving timber piles for a residential pier across a coastal salt marsh
Environmental

Dock & Pier Permitting on the Gulf Coast

Section 10/404, state coastal or ERP, and local dock rules for Gulf piers and docks. Design choices that change the permit — for cities and private waterfront owners.

Engineering

What Is a Corps of Engineers District?

A Corps district is the geographic unit that runs regulatory and civil works in its boundary. JDs and permits go to the district with the resource — Mobile, Vicksburg, New Orleans, or Jacksonville for Cypress’s Gulf work.

Sandy mound with a burrow opening in an open pine flatwoods
Environmental

Gopher Tortoise Surveys

When Gulf Coast projects need gopher tortoise burrow surveys, what the field work covers at a high level, and how ESA and state rules can both apply.

Concrete floodwall and riprap along a levee-lined waterway
Engineering

What Is a Section 408 Permission?

Section 408 (33 U.S.C. § 408) is permission to alter or occupy a Corps civil works project — levees, federal channels, and similar. It is separate from 404 and Section 10.

Rocky stream flowing between grassy, wooded banks
Environmental

What Is Stream Mitigation?

Stream mitigation replaces authorized 404 impacts to streams with credits or permittee-responsible work. Wetland credits do not automatically clear a stream debit.

Storage containers on a concrete pad near industrial tanks
Engineering

What Is RCRA?

RCRA is the federal cradle-to-grave hazardous waste law. How it differs from CERCLA, and how it shows up next to Phase I/II site work in the Southeast.

Rural road running alongside a roadside ditch and wetland vegetation
Engineering

What Is a Categorical Exclusion (CatEx)?

A CatEx is the NEPA path for federal actions that fit an agency’s listed category and clear extraordinary circumstances. It is not a free pass past 404, ESA, or state permits.

Eroding sand dune and breaking waves on a Gulf beach under storm clouds
Engineering

FEMA Map Decoder: Velocity Zones and LiMWA

V and VE mean waves and velocity, not stillwater. LiMWA marks moderate wave action inside coastal AE. How to read those Gulf FIRM labels before you argue about foundations.

Riverbank armored with riprap along a slow, tree-lined river
Engineering

What Is a No-Rise Certification?

A no-rise certification is an engineer’s showing that floodway work will not raise the base flood elevation — 0.00 feet. It is not a FEMA map change and not a permit.

Staff gauge standing in a shallow, rocky stream for water level measurement
Engineering

Hydrologic and Hydraulic Modeling

Hydrology is how much water. Hydraulics is where it goes. An H&H model is those two questions in a form a permit desk can argue with — not a rendering.

Hilltop view over a forested watershed with a winding river valley
Engineering

What Is a Watershed Management Plan?

A watershed management plan describes how a drainage basin works and what the sponsors will do about it. It is not a SWPPP, a 404 permit, or a one-pad stormwater report.

Narrow stream channel running through a wooded wetland
Engineering

What Is the Sackett v. EPA Ruling?

Sackett v. EPA (2023) is the Supreme Court test the Corps now uses for wetland jurisdiction: a relatively permanent water plus a continuous surface connection.

Small isolated pond surrounded by pine forest and wetland grasses
Engineering

What Are Isolated Wetlands?

An isolated wetland can still be a wetland. Isolated describes the connection to a relatively permanent water, not the soil — and after Sackett that difference decides 404.