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Rule changes proposed for wetland, public water statutes PETER RAEKER, BWSR The Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) and MnDNR have proposed rule changes to Minnesota's wetland and public waters rules. Both agencies are about midway through the formal rulemaking process required to enact the proposed changes. The Minnesota Legislature made a number of significant changes to the public water and wetland regulations in 2000 and 2001. Two programs implement these laws -the Hand-crafted log beds of the finest, rock solid, kiln- dried logs. in all sizes and Public Waters Work Permit Program within the DNR and the Wetland Conservation Act (W CA), which is administered by local units of government with BWSR oversight. The rulemaking process is necessary to make permanent existing rules that will expire July 30 and to adopt other changes that have been proposed by local govern- ments, state agency staff, interest groups and others. BWSR and DNR held six informational meetings about the proposed changes in February. In addition to those meetings, formal written public comment was re- ceived through March 13 for BWSR's WCA rule changes. Since more than 2S people submitted a written request for a hearing on the WCA rules, apublic hearing was held March 26. One of the proposed WCA rule changes involves providing greater incentive and ease for local governments to carry WCA through ordinance based on wetland plans and protection standards, according to John Jaschke, BWSR's land and water section administrator. The process to develop these plans includes an inventory and assessment of all wetlands and involvement by local citizens to help decide which wet}ands are most important. "Wetland regulation then becomes part of overall land-use ordinance administration. We feel that this is a better way to comprehensively manage develop- ment in many cases," Jaschke said. Local ordinance standards and enforcement provisions have to be equal to or greater than state requirements, he noted. Other proposed changes to WCA include language that clarifies the typing of wet- lands for application of the de minimis exception (the allowance of small excava- tions for which replacements are not re- quired),increasing the minimum width of an upland buffer for a replacement wet- land to an average of 50 feet for wetlands 2.S acres or smaller and an average width of 100 feet for wetlands greater than 2.S acres, administration changes to the wetland bank-ing system to provide greater flexibility in buying and selling wetland credits, and assurances that wetland sites developed for wetland banking will be permanently protected and maintained. style: Country Livin' Pine Furniture 24419 Hazelwood Drive P.O. Box S46 Nisswa, MN 56468 logbeds.com 1-888-logbeds(564-2337) 218-963-3894 • fax 218-963-3802 Legislation passed in 2000 and 2001 made the standards and processes forpublic water and wetland regulation statutes similar for similar kinds of waterbodies. DNR has adopted some of the WCA standards in its public waters rule. Similarly, WCA has adopted some standards of public waters since both rules regulate types numbers three, four and five wetlands. "Even with 20 APRIL 2002 FOCUS on the Waters