Bill Text: MI HB5855 | 2017-2018 | 99th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Natural resources; wetlands; voluntary wetland restoration permit program; provide definitions for. Amends sec. 30301 of 1994 PA 451 (MCL 324.30301).
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2018-12-31 - Assigned Pa 562'18 With Immediate Effect [HB5855 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2017-HB5855-Introduced.html
HOUSE BILL No. 5855
April 24, 2018, Introduced by Reps. Bellino, Howell, LaFave, Sheppard, Lucido, Lilly, Kosowski, Rendon, Dianda, Cole, Glenn, Reilly, Hauck, Hornberger, VanSingel, Miller, Chirkun and VanderWall and referred to the Committee on Natural Resources.
A bill to amend 1994 PA 451, entitled
"Natural resources and environmental protection act,"
by amending section 30301 (MCL 324.30301), as amended by 2012 PA
247.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 30301. (1) As used in this part:
(a) "Altered wetland" means wetland in which vegetation, soil,
hydrology, or any combination thereof have been sufficiently
altered by human activities or natural events as to adversely
affect the functions and values of the wetland.
(b) "Degraded wetland" means either of the following:
(i) Wetland in which there is excessive drainage or impaired
surface water flow or groundwater hydrology.
(ii) Wetland that has been partially filled or excavated,
contaminated with hazardous substances, or infested with invasive
species, or the ecological value of which has been substantially
reduced.
(c) (a)
"Department" means the
department of environmental
quality, except that as used in or applied to the administration
and enforcement of section 30312f, department means the department
of natural resources.
(d) (b)
"Director" means the
director of the department.
(e) (c)
"Exceptional wetland"
means wetland that provides
physical or biological functions essential to the natural resources
of
the this state and that may be lost or degraded if not
preserved
through an approved site protection and management plan for the
purposes of providing compensatory wetland mitigation.
(f) (d)
"Fill material" means
soil, rocks, sand, waste of any
kind, or any other material that displaces soil or water or reduces
water retention potential. Uncontaminated water is not fill
material.
(g) "Former wetland" means land that been modified to the
point that it no longer has the hydrologic characteristics of a
wetland.
(h) (e)
"Landscape level wetland
assessment" means the use of
aerial photographs, maps, and other remotely sensed information to
predict and evaluate wetland characteristics and functions in the
context of all of the following:
(i) The wetland's landscape position and hydrologic
characteristics.
(ii) The surrounding landscape.
(iii) The historic extent and condition of the wetland.
(i) (f)
"Minor drainage" includes
ditching and tiling for the
removal of excess soil moisture incidental to the planting,
cultivating, protecting, or harvesting of crops or improving the
productivity of land in established use for agriculture,
horticulture, silviculture, or lumbering.
(j) (g)
"Nationwide permit" means
a nationwide permit issued
by
the United States army corps of engineers Army Corps of
Engineers
under 72 FR 11091 to 11198 (March
12, 2007), 82 FR 1860
to 2008 (January 6, 2017), including all general conditions,
regional conditions, and conditions imposed by this state pursuant
to a water quality certification under section 401 of title IV of
the federal water pollution control act, 33 USC 1341, or a coastal
zone management consistency determination under section 307 of the
coastal zone management act of 1972, 16 USC 1456.
(k) (h)
"Ordinary high-water
mark" means the ordinary high-
water mark as specified in section 32502.
(l) (i)
"Person" means an
individual, sole proprietorship,
partnership, corporation, association, municipality, this state, an
instrumentality or agency of this state, the federal government, an
instrumentality or agency of the federal government, or other legal
entity.
(m) (j)
"Rapid wetland
assessment" means a method for
generally assessing the functions, values, and condition of
individual wetlands based on existing data and field indicators.
(n) (k)
"Rare and imperiled
wetland" means any of the
following:
(i) Great Lakes marsh.
(ii) Southern wet meadow.
(iii) Inland salt marsh.
(iv) Intermittent wetland or boggy seepage wetland.
(v) Coastal plain marsh.
(vi) Interdunal wetland.
(vii) Lakeplain wet prairie.
(viii) Lakeplain wet-mesic prairie.
(ix) Northern wet-mesic prairie.
(x) Wet-mesic prairie.
(xi) Wet prairie.
(xii) Prairie fen.
(xiii) Northern fen.
(xiv) Patterned fen.
(xv) Poor fen.
(xvi) Muskeg.
(xvii) Rich conifer swamp.
(xviii) Relict conifer swamp.
(xix) Hardwood-conifer swamp.
(xx) Northern swamp.
(xxi) Southern swamp.
(xxii) Southern floodplain forest.
(xxiii) Inundated shrub swamp.
(o) "Voluntary wetland restoration project" or "VWR project"
means activities that are undertaken on a voluntary basis to
restore, rehabilitate, enhance, maintain, or manage wetlands,
including, but not limited to, altered wetland, degraded wetland,
or former wetland, to increase wetland acreage, quality, function,
or value as determined by published research, case studies, or
demonstration projects. VWR project does not include an activity
undertaken to fulfill, currently or in the future, a federal,
state, or local wetland permit mitigation requirement.
(p) (l) "Water
dependent" means requiring access or proximity
to or siting within an aquatic site to fulfill its basic purpose.
(q) (m)
"Wetland", subject to subdivision (p), means land
characterized by the presence of water at a frequency and duration
sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances does
support, wetland vegetation or aquatic life, and is commonly
referred
to as a bog, swamp, or marsh, and to
which is any of the
following apply:
(i) Contiguous It is contiguous to the
Great Lakes or Lake St.
Clair, an inland lake or pond, or a river or stream.
(ii) Not contiguous to the Great Lakes, an inland
lake or
pond,
or a river or stream; and It
is more than 5 acres in size.
(iii) Not contiguous to the Great Lakes, an inland
lake or
pond,
or a river or stream; and 5 acres or less in size if the
department
determines that The protection of the area is determined
by the department to be essential to the preservation of the
natural
resources of the this state from pollution, impairment, or
destruction and the department has so notified the owner.
(2) The department and local units of government shall apply
the technical wetland delineation standards set forth in the United
States
army corps of engineers Army
Corps of Engineers January 1987
wetland
delineation manual, technical report "Wetland Delineation
Manual, Technical Report" Y-87-1, and appropriate regional United
States
army corps of engineers Army
Corps of Engineers supplements,
in identifying wetland boundaries under this part, including, but
not limited to, section 30307.
Enacting section 1. This amendatory act takes effect 90 days
after the date it is enacted into law.
Enacting section 2. This amendatory act does not take effect
unless Senate Bill No.____ or House Bill No. 5854 (request no.
06010'18 *) of the 99th Legislature is enacted into law.
