Illinois Administrative Code › Title 17 - CONSERVATION › Part 1090 - IMPLEMENTATION PROCEDURES FOR THE INTERAGENCY WETLANDS POLICY ACT › Section 1090.10 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 28, July 12, 2024
The following terms will be used throughout this Part:
"Act" - The Interagency Wetland Policy Act of 1989 [20 ILCS 830
				].
"Agricultural Activity" - Includes, but is not limited to,
				normal farming, ranching, horticulture, silviculture, grazing, haying,
				production of tree fruits or nuts, raising of livestock, production of row
				crops, and other farming activities including but not limited to tillage,
				seeding, irrigation, spraying, cultivating, and harvesting for the production
				of food and fiber products.
"Compensation Ratios" - Relationship between the amount of
				compensation required as compared with the amount of adverse impact to a
				wetland.
"Best Technology Currently Available" - The term includes, but
				is not limited to, devices, systems, methods, techniques, construction
				practices, siting requirements, vegetative selection, planting requirements,
				scheduling of activities and design of structures that are currently
				available.
"Buffer Area" - A portion of the supportive upland or related
				essential environmental area adjacent to a wetland that serves as an integral
				component of the wetland ecosystem and helps to protect the wetland's
				functional values.
"Converted Wetland" - The alteration of wetland hydrology,
				plants or soil such that the area no longer meets the definition of a
				wetland.
"Department" - The Department of Natural Resources.
"Destruction" - An adverse wetland impact that does not meet
				the criteria to be defined as a programmatic action and that causes
				either:
The removal or loss of 2 or more acres of wetland vegetation;
				or
The alteration of preexisting hydrology or soils of more than
				0.5 acres of a wetland for more than 12 months. This includes, but is not
				limited to, the placement of dredge or fill material into a wetland, the
				drainage of a wetland, filling in of a wetland through sedimentation,
				etc.
"Essential Habitat" - As defined in 17 Ill. Adm. Code 1075 -
				Consultation Procedures for Assessing Impacts of Agency Actions on Endangered
				and Threatened Species and Natural Areas, the physical and biological
				environment that is required to maintain viable populations of a listed species
				in order to ensure the survival and recovery of that species.
"Fisheries Management Activities" - Activities that preserve,
				restore, maintain, control or enhance aquatic resources. This includes
				biological, chemical, mechanical, or physical management of aquatic life and
				their habitats.
"Forestry Activity" - Planting, cultivating, thinning,
				harvesting, or any other silvicultural activity undertaken to use forest
				resources or to improve their quality or productivity. This does not include
				the clearing of trees to convert forest to another land use.
"Hydrologic Unit" - The drainage area of a river or stream as
				identified in Exhibit A.
"Level of Impact" - Refers to amount of adverse impact a
				project will have on a wetland and is expressed in terms of minimal alteration,
				significant alteration or wetland destruction.
"Listed Species" - Those species declared threatened or
				endangered by the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board.
"Minimal alteration" - An adverse wetland impact that:
Meets the criteria to be defined as a programmatic action;
				or
Causes the removal or loss of 0.5 acre or less of wetland
				vegetation but that does not alter the preexisting hydrology of the wetland for
				a period of more than 12 months.
"Normal Circumstances" - Determined on the basis of an area's
				characteristics and use, at present and in the recent past. If an area is
				abandoned and over time regains wetland characteristics such that it meets the
				definition of wetland, then jurisdiction has been restored.
"Off the Site" - A wetland compensation area located within the
				same Hydrologic Unit boundary (as identified in Exhibit A), but more than one
				mile, from the site of the proposed project for which the wetland compensation
				is required.
"On the Site" - When a wetland compensation area is located
				within the same Hydrologic Unit boundary (as identified in Exhibit A) and
				within one mile of the site of the proposed project for which the wetland
				compensation is required.
"Out of the Drainage Basin" - When a wetland compensation area
				is located outside the Hydrologic Unit boundary (as identified in Exhibit A)
				which includes the site of the proposed project for which the wetland
				compensation is required.
"Performance Standards" - Predetermined goals for achieving and
				measuring the success of a wetland compensation project.
"Programmatic Actions" - Actions defined in an agency Action
				Plan that will result in the establishment of coordination procedures between
				the agency and Department that will reduce the amount of time, correspondence
				and documentation required to fulfill an agency's obligations under this
				Part.
"Progressive Levels of Compensation" - Refers to a system which
				requires increasing levels of compensation based upon the level of adverse
				impact to an affected wetland and the location of a compensation wetland in
				relationship to the adversely impacted wetland.
"Significant Alteration" - An adverse wetland impact that does
				not meet the criteria to be defined as a programmatic action and that causes
				either:
The removal or loss of more than 0.5 acre but less than 2 acres
				of wetland vegetation but that does not alter the preexisting hydrology of the
				wetland for a period of more than 12 months; or
The alteration of preexisting hydrology or soils of 0.5 acre or
				less of a wetland for more than 12 months. This includes, but is not limited to
				the placement of dredge or fill material into a wetland, the drainage of a
				wetland, filling in of a wetland through sedimentation, etc.
"State Jurisdictional Wetland" - Land that has a predominance
				of hydric soils and that is inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at
				a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal
				circumstances does support, a prevalence of hydrophytic vegetation typically
				adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Areas that are restored or
				created as the result of mitigation or planned construction projects and that
				function as a wetland are included within this definition even when all 3
				wetland parameters are not present.
"Value" - Unit of measure (i.e., acres, wetland functions, or
				dollars) that is multiplied by the appropriate wetland compensation ratio to
				determine the amount of wetland compensation that is required.
"Wetland Compensation" - The required planning and
				implementation process that results in the replacement of wetland function and
				area to offset an adverse wetland impact; or providing funding for wetland
				research, acquisition, etc.
"Wetland Compensation Account" - A system of accounting for
				wetland loss and compensation; can include one or more wetland compensation
				account sites.
"Wetland Creation" - The establishment of a wetland where a
				wetland does not currently exist.
"Wetland Enhancement" - Wetland management or other activity
				that increases one or more natural or artificial wetland functions while
				minimizing adverse impacts to other wetland functions.
"Wetland Management Practices" - Activities that maintain,
				control and enhance wetland wildlife habitat. This includes the chemical and/or
				mechanical control of undesirable vegetation.