The proposed work consists of impacting jurisdictional Waters of the United States (WOUS) for the construction of a single-family residential subdivision. In detail, the placement of 0.61 acre of fill and the excavation of 1.56 acres will occur within two (2) impoundments of WOUS located on the site. According to the applicant, the proposed development will require fill to be placed in the impoundments for the construction of the home sites, construction of a private road and parking, and grading for stormwater pond construction. According to the applicant, the excavation that will occur is for the purpose of achieving adequate depths within the impoundments required for stormwater retention. The impoundments will first be dewatered before excavation activities begin utilizing pumps to drawdown the impoundments to downstream drainage elevations. A flow bypass will be in place to drain the area if a large rain event occurs during drawdown. Spoil material will be placed into one of two containment and dewatering areas comprised of a double row of silt fence and allowed to dewater back into the impoundments and flow downstream to the Atlantic Ocean. In efforts to avoid and minimize impacts to WOUS, the applicant submitted the following statement: “Complete avoidance of any impacts to aquatic resources would present difficulties for almost any residential developments on this site, due to the unique geography of the existing ponds. Removal of fill impacts would dramatically reduce the number of potentially buildable lots, and present challenges to construction of access road along the northeast site boundary, requiring more costly construction techniques to stay out of the pond area. Additionally, any reasonably sized construction on the site would require stormwater detention volume that would exceed that of the existing capacity of the existing ponds. Without maintenance dredging of the ponds, there is not any feasible development option for the site that could use the ponds as they currently exist, and construction of additional stormwater detention areas in the uplands would further development potential by consuming more of the already minimal buildable area.” The applicant has proposed to mitigate for impacts to wetlands and/or waters of the United States by purchasing 4.3 credits from the Waccamaw or Carter Stilley Wetland Mitigation Banks. The project purpose is single-family residential housing.