AB 956

This bill makes changes to wetland mitigation requirements and requirements

for mitigation banks.

Wetland mitigation program.

Under current law, DNR must issue wetland

general permits for discharges of dredged or fill material into certain wetlands and

may require a person to apply for and obtain a wetland individual permit if DNR

determines that conditions specific to the site require additional restrictions on the

discharge in order to provide reasonable assurance that no significant adverse

impacts to wetland functional values will occur. Under current law, before DNR may

issue a wetland individual permit, it must require the restoration, enhancement,

creation, or preservation of other wetlands to compensate for adverse impacts to a

wetland resulting from the discharge, also known as mitigation.

Under current law there are three methods by which wetland mitigation may

be accomplished: 1) purchasing credits from a mitigation bank located in this state;

2) participating in the in lieu fee subprogram; or 3) completing mitigation within the

same watershed or within one-half mile of the site of the discharge.

This bill changes all of these options by limiting credit purchases to only a

mitigation bank located in the same compensation search area as the wetland

impacted by the discharge, if available, and limiting any mitigation completed under

the in lieu fee subprogram or by the permittee to the same compensation search area

as the wetland impacted by the discharge. Under the bill, a compensation search

area is an area that includes the geographic management unit of a wetland impacted

by a discharge, the county of the impacted wetland, and a 20-mile radius from the

impacted wetland. Under the bill, a geographic management unit is one of the 22

statewide management units established by DNR based on the major river basins

of the state.

Mitigation banks.

One method under current law by which wetland

mitigation may be accomplished is by purchasing credits from a mitigation bank

located in this state. Under current law, a mitigation bank is a system of accounting

for wetland loss and compensation that includes one or more sites where wetlands

are restored, enhanced, created, or preserved to provide credits to be subsequently

applied or purchased in order to compensate for adverse impacts to other wetlands.

Under current law DNR must approve the establishment of a mitigation bank.

This bill requires DNR to establish by rule financial assurance requirements

for the construction of mitigation projects by mitigation banks. The bill also

establishes the means by which a mitigation bank that has not yet completed

construction of a mitigation project and has not been approved by DNR (developing

mitigation bank) may sell its estimated credits, or the credits that the mitigation

bank estimates it will have once the mitigation project is complete. Under the bill,