Federal officials are recognizing the work of state water quality and transportation officials in protecting wetlands. The Federal Highway Administration is presenting the state Division of Water Quality and Department of Transportation with two awards. Susan Massengale is a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources. She says one award is for the development of an advanced modeling system that produces accurate maps of streams and wetlands.
Susan Massengale: "What has come out of that are models that can predict where the beginnings of streams are and where wetlands are in areas that maybe have not been mapped to very high detail before."
Massengale says that will save time at the planning stage for building roads and highways while also protecting water quality and wetlands. Another award is for a wetland assessment method used to determine 16 different types of wetlands.