Bill Text: MI HB5855 | 2017-2018 | 99th Legislature | Engrossed
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-Engrossed.html
HB-5855, As Passed Senate, December 18, 2018
SENATE SUBSTITUTE FOR
HOUSE BILL NO. 5855
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) "Department" means the department of environmental
quality.
(b) "Director" means the director of the department.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(h) "Ordinary high-water mark" means the ordinary high-water
mark as specified in section 32502.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(l) "Water dependent" means requiring access or proximity to
or siting within an aquatic site to fulfill its basic purpose.
(m) "Wetland" 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 which is any of the following:
(i) 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 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 protection of the area is 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.
(3) As used in section 30312f:
(a) "Altered or degraded wetland" means wetland that meets any
of the following criteria:
(i) Has been partially or fully drained, such as by ditching,
tiling, or pumping.
(ii) Has been partially or fully filled by direct placement of
material in the wetland or significant sedimentation.
(iii) Invasive plant species dominate in a majority of the
vegetated surface area of the wetland.
(iv) Has undergone land use conversion or alteration to
vegetation, soil, or hydrology that currently affects the wetland
functions and services.
(b) "Former wetland" means land that was wetland but that has
been modified to the point that it no longer has the hydrologic
characteristics of wetland.
(c) "Net increase in wetland functions and services" means an
increase in 1 or more wetland functions and services with not more
than a minimal decrease in other wetland functions and services.
(d) "Voluntary wetland restoration project", subject to
subdivision (e), means any of the following:
(i) Activities that are voluntarily undertaken to restore,
reestablish, rehabilitate, or enhance altered or degraded wetland
or former wetland and that result in a net increase in wetland
functions and services.
(ii) Activities to maintain or manage sites where activities
described in subparagraph (i) have taken place, including sites
restored before October 1, 1980, the effective date of former 1979
PA 203.
(e) Voluntary wetland restoration project does not include an
activity undertaken to fulfill, currently or in the future, a
federal, state, or local wetland permit mitigation requirement.
(f) "Wetland functions and services" means any of the
following:
(i) Wetland hydrology that approximates the predisturbance
condition or that emulates the natural condition of the wetland.
(ii) Fish and wildlife habitat quality or quantity.
(iii) Plant community quality, characterized by native
vegetation types and diversity.
(iv) Water- and soil-related functions of the wetland, such as
nutrient removal, sediment retention, flood control, or groundwater
recharge.
(v) Recreational use of the wetland, including, but not
limited to, fishing, hunting, trapping, and birdwatching.
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 House Bill No. 5854 of the 99th Legislature is enacted into
law.
