Connecticut Administrative Code › Title 22a - Environmental Protection › 339d - Grants to Municipalities and Lake Associations to Improve the Water Quality of Recreational Lakes › Section 22a-339d-1 - Definitions, practice and procedures

Current through July 10, 2024
(a)
Definitions
"Applicant" means municipality or lake association.
"Agreement" means a written contract between the Department of
				Environmental Protection and an applicant for a diagnostic feasibility study or
				eutrophication abatement project.
"Baseline study" means the acquisition of data and information
				about lake quality and characteristics necessary to assign a priority
				rating.
"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Environmental
				Protection.
"Construction" means building, erecting, or installing
				structural components of lake management or watershed management programs and
				any lake sediment removal program.
"DEP Trophic Classification Inventory" means Department of
				Environmental Protection Bulletin No. 3,
A Trophic Classification
				Inventory of Seventy Connecticut Lakes,
1980, as may be
				amended.
"Diagnostic feasibility study" means a study to characterize
				lake water quality conditions, identify watershed sources of nutrients and
				sediments, and evaluate lake management activities and watershed management
				activities to abate eutrophication.
"Eutrophication" means nutrient enrichment or sedimentation
				causing excessive phytoplankton, macrophyton, or dissolved oxygen depletion
				which impairs recreation.
"Eutrophication abatement" means the implementation of lake
				management activities and watershed management activities to prevent, reduce,
				or correct eutrophication.
"Federal Act" means the Federal Clean Water Act (
				33 U.S.C.
				1251 et. seq., as amended).
"Implementation" means the process of accomplishing lake
				management activities and watershed management activities recommended by a
				diagnostic feasibility study.
"Lake" means all natural and artificial impounded bodies of
				water listed by the Secretary of the State as lakes, ponds, and reservoirs
				pursuant to section
				3-100 of the
				General Statutes.
"Lake association" means a lake association as defined by
				section 1 of Public Act 87-492.
"Lake management activities" means procedures and processes
				implemented within a lake to achieve eutrophication abatement.
"Municipality" means municipality as defined in section
				22a-423
				of the General Statutes or a lake authority established pursuant to section
				7-151a
				of the General Statutes.
"Public recreation" means the right of ingress by the general
				public for water based recreation through some form of access without charge or
				at a fee determined to be reasonable by the Commissioner.
"Project" means project as defined in section 1 of Public Act
				87-492. "Regional population" means the sum of the populations of all towns
				with a boundary line within ten miles of the shoreline of the lake.
"Subagreement" means a written agreement between a grant
				recipient and another party for services, supplies, equipment, or construction
				necessary to conduct a diagnostic feasibility study or implement a
				eutrophication abatement project.
"Watershed" means that land area from which water drains into a
				lake.
"Watershed management activities" means procedures and
				processes implemented within a lake watershed to achieve eutrophication
				abatement through control of nutrients and sediments.
(b)
Eligibility.
The
			 Commissioner may make grants to municipalities and lake associations which have
			 completed baseline studies and qualify for funding of the costs of diagnostic
			 feasibility studies and eutrophication abatement programs for lakes used for
			 public recreation, according to the criteria of the state priority rating
			 system.
(c)
State Priority
			 System.
Each project application shall be given points as applicable for
			 each of the following rating criteria, the sum of which shall determine its
			 priority number. These criteria are consistent with the rating system used by
			 the Commissioner to establish priorities for federal lakes management grants
			 under section 314 of the Federal Act.
Priority Rating Point
						  System
I. Lake Water Quality (35 points maximum)
A. Trophic Classification, as determined by methods and
						  procedures in the
DEP Trophic Classification
						  Inventory.
1. Oligotrophic
- 30 points
2. Mesotrophic
- 5 points
3. Eutrophic
- 20 points
4. Highly Eutrophic
- 35 points
B. Aquatic Macrophytes, as determined by methods and
						  procedures in the
DEP Trophic Classification
						  Inventory.
1. Mesotrophic or eutrophic lakes with macrophyte beds
						  occupying more than 30% of total lake surface area
- an additional 10 points
II. Recreation Opportunities (70 points
						  maximum)
A. Regional Population (25 points maximum)
1. Greater than 500,000
- 25 points
2. 100,000 to 500,000
- 15 points
3. Less than 100,000
- 5 points
B. State Owned Or Leased Access (20 points
						  maximum)
1. Boat Launch
- 15 points
2. Park
- 5 points
C. Town and Lake Association Owned Or Leased Access (15
						  points maximum)
1. Town Beach, each
- 5 points
2. Association Beach, each
- 5 points
D. Recreational Fisheries (10 points
						  maximum)
1. Fisheries Impaired By Eutrophication (As determined
						  by DEP Fisheries Bureau)
- 10 points
III. Lake Size (45 points maximum)
A. Surface Area
1. Greater than 325 acres
- 25 points
2. Between 175 and 325 acres
- 20 points
3. Between 90 and 174 acres
- 15 points
4. Between 50 and 89 acres
- 10 points
5. Between 10 and 49 acres
- 5 point
6. Less than 10 acres
- 0 points
B. Maximum Depth
1. Greater than 50 feet
- 20 points
2. Between 20 and 50 feet
- 15 points
3. Between 12 and 19 feet
- 10 points
4. Less than 12 feet
- 15 points
IV. Project Status (30 points maximum)
A. Diagnostic Feasibility Grants
1. Diagnostic feasibility study not
						  initiated
- 15 points
2. Diagnostic feasibility study not initiated, to
						  include innovative research with statewide applications
- 25 points
3. Diagnostic feasibility study initiated but
						  incomplete
- 30 points
4. Eutrophication abatement initiated, additional
						  diagnostic feasibility study needed
- 5 points
5. Eutrophication abatement initiated, additional
						  diagnostic feasibility study needed, to include innovative research with
						  statewide applications
- 15 points
B. Eutrophication Abatement Grants
1. Diagnostic feasibility study complete,
						  eutrophication abatement not initiated
- 20 points
2. Eutrophication abatement initiated,
						  incomplete
- 30 points
V. Natural Trophic Tendency (20 points maximum)
The natural trophic tendency of a lake is determined by
						  procedures described in "A Connecticut Lakes Management Program Effort,"
Proceedings: Lake Management Conference
, University of
						  Connecticut, Institute of Water Resources, Report No. 30, March 1979.
A. Oligotrophic Tendency
- 20 points
B. Mesotrophic Tendency
- 15 points
C. Eutrophic Tendency
- 5 points
(d)
State Project Priority List
(1)
			 Priority List.
The Commissioner may prepare a listing of projects ranked
				according to their priority ratings, for which state grant assistance shall be
				made available for the period effective October 1 to the following September
				30, the program funding year, corresponding to the federal fiscal year. The
				priority list shall contain two parts, a fundable part and a planning part. The
				fundable part shall consist of those highest priority projects ready to proceed
				and anticipated to be funded within the current fiscal year. The planning part
				shall consist of those projects that may be funded from future funding
				authorizations.
(2) Annual
			 Public Hearing.
The allocation of funds to projects on the priority list shall
				be determined annually by the Commissioner based upon available funding and
				applications received prior to October 1, 1988 and prior to August 1 of each
				succeeding year. The draft priority list will indicate which specific projects
				are proposed to receive funding for the upcoming program funding year and shall
				be made public at least 30 days prior to a specified date for a public hearing.
				The Commissioner will consider all written and oral testimony presented at the
				hearing and may elect to modify the draft priority list on the basis of such
				testimony. The Commissioner shall also indicate his or her reasons for
				accepting or rejecting any suggested revisions as part of the hearing record.
				Following notice of any changes to the priority list which may result from the
				hearing, the priority list shall be deemed final except for minor revisions
				allowable under subdivision (3) of this subsection.
(3) Revisions to the Priority List.
The Commissioner may remove a project from the fundable part to
				the planning part of the priority list if he or she determines that the
				bypassed project will not be ready to proceed within the first six months of
				the funding year. The Commissioner shall advise, in writing, each applicant
				which he or she intends to bypass and the reasons therefor. Projects bypassed
				will be replaced by the next highest ranking project ready to proceed. Projects
				will be removed from the priority list the following year after they receive a
				grant, except for segmented projects described in subdivision (4) of this
				subsection.
(4) Segmented
			 Projects.
Eutrophication abatement projects which require more than one
				year to implement, such as sediment removal projects, may be funded annually
				for costs anticipated for the subsequent year. After a segmented project
				receives the initial grant award, the project will remain on the top of the
				fundable portion of the priority lists in subsequent years until the project is
				completed.