SB 169

This bill makes changes to requirements for wetland mitigation banks.

Under current law, the Department of Natural Resources 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. A mitigation

bank is a system of accounting for wetland loss and compensation in which sites

where wetlands are restored, enhanced, created, or preserved generate credits that

may be 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 changes the first method of wetland mitigation 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. 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 the

area within 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. If no available

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

impacted by the discharge, the bill allows credit purchases to be made from a

mitigation bank located within 50 miles of the wetland impacted by the discharge.

If no available mitigation bank is located within 50 miles of the impacted wetland,

the bill allows credit purchases to be made from a mitigation bank in the same basin

as the wetland impacted by the discharge, meaning the Lake Michigan Basin, the

Lake Superior Basin, or the Mississippi River Basin. If no available mitigation bank

is located in the same basin as the wetland impacted by the discharge, the bill allows

credit purchases to be made from a mitigation bank anywhere in the state.

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