1.      Introduction

1.1 Purpose of the PPPM

The purpose of this manual is to document the policies, procedures, and work processes of the State of North Carolina’s Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP).  EEP has developed this manual to promote effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency in its operations.  The PPPM will be reviewed periodically, updated, and maintained to reflect current practices and ongoing improvements. 

The PPPM is intended to serve as a single point of reference for information about how EEP accomplishes its mission through its day-to-day operations.  The primary users of this manual are EEP staff, who are responsible for planning, implementing, assessing, and improving the work processes described herein.  Other users include partners and stakeholders to EEP work processes, such as participating divisions of the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR); the NC Department of Transportation (NCDOT); other departments of the State of North Carolina; federal regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS); the private business community, including design consultants, contractors, and mitigation bankers; and the general public.

1.2 Background on EEP

EEP is designed to provide watershed restoration and compensatory mitigation of the highest quality to offset development in a manner that supports both the vitality of North Carolina’s natural resources and responsible growth in the state.  EEP will work to restore, enhance, and protect the state’s ecosystems, as well as maintain the state’s quality of life, continue its economic expansion, and help ensure the health and well-being of its citizens.

EEP was forged by a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between USACE, NCDOT, and DENR under precedures prescribed in the federal Clean Water Act.  The document was negotiated over a seven-month period and consummated on July 22, 2003.   In order to operate in the state of North Carolina, EEP employed existing legislation and administrative rules governing the state’s watershed-based compensatory mitigation program, which operated under the direction of the state’s Wetlands Restoration Program.

EEP incorporates several innovations in program design and operation.  First, EEP’s mitigation program addresses environmental impacts proactively, not reactively.  Funds are invested in environmental protection ahead of the date the impact will occur.  This basic foundation of EEP allows North Carolina to address the need for economic development while simultaneously protecting and enhancing the environment, an issue germane to every state in the nation.  Second, acting on the philosophy that a programmatic, watershed-based planning process will focus all biological engineering resources toward the best possible environmental return, EEP also embraces partnerships that work to create streamlined government for the state.  The formation of EEP helps by definition to eliminate duplicative resources and also embraces the expertise of all shareholders affected by its processes.  Finally, EEP partners with the private sector on two fronts to offset unavoidable environmental impacts.  The program’s alliance with local and regional land trusts across the state, believed to be unprecedented in the nation on this scale, harnesses the expertise, innovation, and local knowledge of 22 separate trusts to promote land acquisition and open-space protection.  EEP is heavily dependent on biological, engineering, and private mitigation providers, and works cooperatively with those providers to improve processes and promote ethical and competitive services with timely delivery of quality products.  The aim of the partnerships is to provide fair economic return to landowners while achieving open-space protection for the state.  

1.3 Organization of the PPPM

The organization of this PPPM is based on the structure and intent of the ISO 9001-2000 quality management system standard, which provides a comprehensive framework for documenting an organization’s management system.  The PPPM is designed as an electronic hyperlinked document available through EEP’s computer network using a standard Internet browser application and portable document format (PDF) reader.  Major sections of the PPPM correspond to the major elements of the ISO 9001-2000 standard.  Policy Statements and Procedures are formatted in PDF and located throughout the manual, in accordance with the subject of each section.  Indexes to the Policy Statements and Procedures are located in Sections 9 and 10, respectively.  Process Maps that depict EEP’s work processes diagrammatically are located in Section 4.2.  The process maps are organized hierarchically according to EEP’s core processes and are hyperlinked so that the reader may “drill down” to increasing levels of detail for processes, subprocesses, and procedures that have been mapped.  Additional information about ongoing review and maintenance of the PPPM is located in Section 4.1.