ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION DEPARTMENT; WETLANDS;

INLAND WETLANDS;

You want to know how the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) created and disseminated its model inland wetlands regulations.

SUMMARY

Under the Inland Wetlands and Water Courses Act, municipalities must create regulations to protect their local inland wetlands and watercourses. As a guideline to assist municipalities in implementing the law, DEP created model inland wetlands regulations more than 10 years ago. Due to the passage of time, no one at DEP recalls whether it used an advisory board to develop the regulations or how it originally disseminated them, according to Tom Tyler, DEP Legislative Liaison.

DEP currently disseminates the model regulations at the annual training sessions it holds for local inland wetlands agencies. It last updated them in 1997 to reflect statutory changes made in 1996 (an advisory board was not used). The model regulations do not carry the force of law, Tyler noted. Attachment 1 is a copy of OLR report 2000-R-0692, which contains a copy of DEP’s model regulations.

INLAND WETLANDS AND WATERCOURSES ACT

Local Oversight and DEP Model Regulations

Under the Inland Wetlands and Water Courses Act, each municipality must (1) establish an inland wetlands agency or designate an existing agency, such as a zoning commission, to implement the state's inland wetlands law, and (2) adopt regulations (CGS § 22a-42).

Under the act, DEP must, among other things, advise, consult, and cooperate with municipalities and disseminate information intended to protect inland wetlands and watercourses (CGS § 22a-39 (b)-(d)). DEP created its model regulations as a guideline to assist municipalities to implement the law, Tyler said. Municipalities do not have to adopt the model regulations, and some towns choose to use regulations more stringent than DEP suggests.

DEP Training and Information Dissemination. By law, DEP must provide a comprehensive wetlands training program for inland wetlands agency members (CGS § 22a-39 (l)). DEP provides this training, including an explanation of the law and model regulations, in its Municipal Inland Wetland Commissioner’s Training Program, which it presents annually in three segments at locations throughout the state.

The law requires at least one member of a municipality’s inland wetlands agency or its staff to complete DEP’s training (CGS § 22a-42 (d)). To complete the training, a person must attend all three training segments in the same calendar year, according to Darcy Winther, DEP’s inland wetlands training program coordinator.

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