---
kind: "section"
citation: "10 U.S.C. § 2694b"
title: "10"
title_heading: "Armed Forces"
number: "2694b"
heading: "Participation in wetland mitigation banks"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/10/2694b"
units:
  - "Subtitle A — General Military Law"
  - "Part IV — Service, Supply, and Property"
  - "Chapter 159 — Real Property; Related Personal Property; and Lease of Non-Excess Property"
---

# §2694b. Participation in wetland mitigation banks

- (a) **Authority to Participate.—** The [Secretary](/usc/10/4951.md?p=3) of a [military](/usc/10/801.md?p=8) [department](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-6), and the [Secretary](/usc/10/4951.md?p=3) of Defense with respect to matters concerning a [Defense Agency](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-11), when engaged in an authorized activity that may or will result in the destruction of, or an adverse impact to, a wetland, may make payments to a wetland mitigation banking [program](/usc/10/2101.md?p=1) or “in-lieu-fee” mitigation sponsor approved in accordance with the Federal Guidance for the Establishment, Use and Operation of Mitigation Banks (60 Fed. Reg. 58605; November 28, 1995) or the Federal Guidance on the Use of In-Lieu-Fee Arrangements for Compensatory Mitigation Under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act (65 Fed. Reg. 66913; November 7, 2000), or any successor administrative guidance or regulation.
- (b) **Alternative to Creation of Wetland.—** Participation in a wetland mitigation banking [program](/usc/10/2101.md?p=1) or consolidated user site under [subsection (a)](#a) shall be in lieu of mitigating wetland impacts through the creation of a wetland on Federal property.
- (c) **Treatment of Payments.—** Payments made under [subsection (a)](#a) to a wetland mitigation banking [program](/usc/10/2101.md?p=1) or consolidated user site may be treated as eligible project costs for [military construction](/usc/10/2801.md?p=a).

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 108–136, div. A, title III, § 314(a)(1), Nov. 24, 2003, 117 Stat. 1430.)