Connecticut Administrative Code › Title 22a - Environmental Protection › 39 - Inland Wetlands and Water Courses Regulations of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection › Section 22a-39-6.1 - Considerations for decision

Current through July 10, 2024
The Commissioner shall, consistent with applicable requirements
				of Sections
				4-166 to 185 of the
				General Statutes, as amended, consider the following in making his final
				decision on a permit application:
a.
			 All evidence offered at any public hearing;
b. Any reports from other commissions and/or
			 federal or state agencies, including the Soil and Water Conservation District
			 and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection;
c. Additional requested
			 information;
d. All relevant facts
			 and circumstances, including but not limited to the following:
(i) The environmental impact of the proposed
			 action, including the effects of the inland wetland's and water course's
			 natural capacity to support desirable biological life, to prevent flooding, to
			 supply water, to control sediment, to facilitate drainage, and to promote
			 public health and safety.
(ii) The
			 alternatives to the proposed action including a consideration of alternatives
			 which might enhance environmental quality or have a less detrimental effect,
			 and which could feasibly attain the basic objectives of the activity. This
			 should include but is not limited to the alternative of taking no action, or
			 postponing action pending further study; the alternative of requiring actions
			 of different nature which would provide similar benefits with different
			 environmental impacts, such as using a different location for the
			 activity.
(iii) The relationship
			 between the short-term uses of the environment and the maintenance and
			 enhancement of long-term productivity, including consideration of the extent to
			 which the proposed activity involves trade-offs between short-term
			 environmental gains at the expense of long-term losses, or vice versa, and
			 consideration of the extent to which the proposed action forecloses future
			 options.
(iv) Irreversible and
			 irretrievable commitments of resources which would be involved in the proposed
			 activity. This requires recognition that the inland wetlands and water courses
			 of the State of Connecticut are an indispensable and irreplaceable but fragile
			 natural resource, and that these areas may be irreversibly destroyed by
			 deposition, filling, and removal of material, by the diversion or obstruction
			 of waterflow, and by the erection of structures and other uses.
(v) The character and degree of injury to, or
			 interference with, safety, health, or the reasonable use of property which
			 would be caused or threatened. This includes recognition of potential damage
			 from erosion, turbidity, or siltation, loss of fish and other beneficial
			 aquatic organisms, wildlife and vegetation; the dangers of flooding and
			 pollution; and destruction of the economic, aesthetic, recreational and other
			 public and private uses and values of wetlands and water courses.
(vi) The suitability of such action to the
			 area for which it is proposed. This requires the agency to balance the need for
			 the economic growth of the state and the use of its land, with the need to
			 protect its environment and ecology for the people of the state and the benefit
			 of generations yet unborn.