Strongly Support Keeping the Professional Wetland Delineator Certification
I am providing comments for BPOR’s review with regards to its evaluation of the Virginia Professional Wetland Delineator Certification Program. The most common need for wetland delineations arises from the need to obtain USACE Section 404 and VDEQ Section 401 permits for development projects across the Commonwealth. Prior to the establishment of the Professional Wetland Delineator Certification program, many wetland delineations were being performed by people without the required education, training, and experience, and there were often legal ramifications that arose from the malpractice of wetland delineation by these unqualified individuals. Permits were delayed or denied, lawsuits were filed, and development projects were delayed or killed. Since the certification program was implemented, these unnecessary project delays have been minimized, allowing business to proceed with their projects in the most efficient manner possible within the law. I have personally been involved with the certification program as the Virginia Association of Wetland Professional’s Wetland Delineator Certification Committee Chair since before it was passed into law. At the time it was passed into law, the certification met all the requirements for an occupation to be regulated. Nothing has changed now. It still meets all the requirements for an occupation to be regulated.

What has changed was the publication of JLARC Report 509 in late 2018 on the Operations and Performance of the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation. This report generated numerous recommendations for improvement of the operations and performance of DPOR, some of which recommended the review of the need to continue regulation of a number of occupations. That report recommended that DPOR evaluate the need to continue regulation of wetland delineators because they believed that there was an equivalent national certification that would adequately protect the people of the Commonwealth; the Society of Wetland Scientist’s Professional Wetland Scientist Certification (SWS-PWS). Following the publication of that report, DPOR was advised by the Virginia Association of Wetland Professionals (VAWP) that the international SWS-PWS Certification was not an equivalent certification as it has no requirements for any experience, training, or examination in the practice of wetland delineation. Despite this, the BPOR Interim Report to JLARC (December 2019) continued to suggest that the SWS-PWS certification was similar enough to the Virginia PWD certification to continue to evaluate the program for elimination. The BPOR study authors did not contact representatives of either the VAWP or the SWS to verify if the certifications were equivalent.  Following the publication of the report, I informed a representative of the study’s authors that the two certifications were completely different, and provided him with a copy of a 2007 publication by the Association of State Wetland Managers that explained the need for wetland delineator certification, the history of the failed federal efforts to establish such a national certification, and explained how the SWS-PWS certification was not equivalent to the VPWD certification.

There have been numerous comments submitted to date by wetland professionals that hold both the SWS-PWS certification and the Virginia PWD certification that have affirmed that the two certifications are completely different.  Since the sole reason presented in the BPOR Interim report for consideration of elimination of the VPWD certification was the incorrect assumption that an equivalent national certification appeared to meet the needs of the regulated public in Virginia, I urge BPOR to revise its conclusions for its final report, and acknowledge that upon further evaluation it has determined that the two certifications are clearly not equivalent, and remove the VPWD certification from its recommendations for elimination.

Thank you sincerely for your consideration.
Robin Bedenbaugh, PWD
Wetland Delineator Certification Committee Chair
Virginia Association of Wetland Professionals