St. Johns River Water Management District Mitigation Banks Service Areas. A mitigation bank’s service area is the geographic area in which mitigation credits from the bank may be used to offset adverse impacts to wetlands and other surface waters. The service area is established in the bank’s permit. The mitigation service areas of different banks may overlap. With three exceptions, mitigation credits may only be withdrawn to offset adverse impacts of projects located in the bank’s mitigation service area. The following projects or activities are eligible to use a mitigation bank even if they are not completely located in the bank’s mitigation service area: a. Projects with adverse impacts partially located within the mitigation service area b. Linear projects, such as roadways, transmission lines, pipelines c. Projects with total adverse impacts of less than one acre in size Before mitigation credits for these types of projects may be used, SJRWMD must still determine that the mitigation bank will offset the adverse impacts of the project and either that: On-site mitigation opportunities are not expected to have comparable long-term viability due to such factors as unsuitable hydrologic conditions or ecologically incompatible existing adjacent land uses; or Use of the mitigation bank would provide greater improvement in ecological value than on-site mitigation.