What applies, and since when

Anyone who's sat through a design review knows the list: species, wetlands, nests, who issues what. Each answer starts with which rule and which version, and the rules move mid-project. Someone has to pull the paragraphs before the next meeting.

One case on our Try page: 13 design-review questions on a bridge replacement, answered from the ESA, the Clean Water Act and Colorado's rules only, quoted and dated under each. The lesser prairie-chicken is off the federal list, still state threatened. If the isolated wetland isn't federal, Colorado's dredge-and-fill rules pick it up. 3 of 13 fall outside the sources, with the missing rule named.

You decide at the next meeting, on the paragraph in effect that day. What the sources can't answer surfaces now, not in permit review. Same for the rest of the Try page: a climate risk assessment, a redlined environmental assessment, a remediation completion report.

Try it yourself →