During the last Periodic and Small Business Impact Review in 2020, the Professional Wetland Delineator Certification Program was proposed for elimination by the Board for Professional and Occupational Regulation.  At that time, it was clearly demonstrated that the PWD certification program satisfied all 4 criteria required for an occupation to be regulated (Section 54.1-100):  1) The unregulated practice of the occupation can harm public health, safety, and welfare.  2) The occupation's work has inherent qualities that distinguish it from other occupations.  3) The public will benefit from sate assurances of competency. and 4) The public is not protected by other means.

The PWD certification is again under Periodic Review and still meets all the required elements for the occupation to be regulated as was demonstrated in 2020, however, it has become even more important for ensuring timely permitting for projects in the Commonwealth.  Due to the recent changes in federal wetlands and waters regulation resulting from the Sackett vs. EPA Supreme Court decision, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers currently is declining to issue Approved Jurisdictional Confirmations for projects, which has thrown regulatory permitting timelines in the Commonwealth into chaos.  Currently there are no assurances of expedient reviews of permit applications in the Commonwealth.  To keep wetland permitting moving forward, the VDEQ is implementing its new Virginia State Waters delineator (VSWD) Certification Program, which requires that a VSWD have a PWD Certification in addition to a stream identification and assessment certification.  The VDEQ has recently announced that wetland and stream delineations performed by a certified VSWD will be provided expedited 30-day review under the Permitting Enhancement and Evaluation Platform (PEEP) tracking program, while wetland and stream delineations performed by non-VSWD certified practitioners will not have any assurances of this expedient review.  It will now be even more critical to retain the PWD certification program in order to provide more certainty and timely reviews in the state project permitting review process.