Michigan Compiled Laws § 324.30301 Definitions; Technical Wetland Delineation Standards.


***** 324.30301 THIS SECTION IS REPEALED BY ACT 98 OF 2013 EFFECTIVE 160 DAYS AFTER THE EFFECTIVE DATE, AS PUBLISHED IN THE FEDERAL REGISTER, OF AN ORDER BY THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY UNDER 40 CFR 233.53(c)(8)(vi) WITHDRAWING APPROVAL OF THE STATE PROGRAM UNDER 33 USC 1344(g) AND (h). (See enacting section 2 of Act 98 of 2013.) *****


324.30301 Definitions; technical wetland delineation standards.

Sec. 30301.

(1) As used in this part:

(a) "Department" means the department of environmental quality.

(b) "Director" means the director of the department.

(c) "Exceptional wetland" means wetland that provides physical or biological functions essential to the natural resources of the state and that may be lost or degraded if not preserved through an approved site protection and management plan for the purposes of providing compensatory wetland mitigation.

(d) "Fill material" means soil, rocks, sand, waste of any kind, or any other material that displaces soil or water or reduces water retention potential.

(e) "Landscape level wetland assessment" means the use of aerial photographs, maps, and other remotely sensed information to predict and evaluate wetland characteristics and functions in the context of all of the following:

(i) The wetland's landscape position and hydrologic characteristics.

(ii) The surrounding landscape.

(iii) The historic extent and condition of the wetland.

(f) "Minor drainage" includes ditching and tiling for the removal of excess soil moisture incidental to the planting, cultivating, protecting, or harvesting of crops or improving the productivity of land in established use for agriculture, horticulture, silviculture, or lumbering.

(g) "Nationwide permit" means a nationwide permit issued by the United States army corps of engineers under 72 FR 11091 to 11198 (March 12, 2007), including all general conditions, regional conditions, and conditions imposed by this state pursuant to a water quality certification under section 401 of title IV of the federal water pollution control act, 33 USC 1341, or a coastal zone management consistency determination under section 307 of the coastal zone management act of 1972, 16 USC 1456.

(h) "Ordinary high-water mark" means the ordinary high-water mark as specified in section 32502.

(i) "Person" means an individual, sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, association, municipality, this state, an instrumentality or agency of this state, the federal government, an instrumentality or agency of the federal government, or other legal entity.

(j) "Rapid wetland assessment" means a method for generally assessing the functions, values, and condition of individual wetlands based on existing data and field indicators.

(k) "Rare and imperiled wetland" means any of the following:

(i) Great Lakes marsh.

(ii) Southern wet meadow.

(iii) Inland salt marsh.

(iv) Intermittent wetland or boggy seepage wetland.

(v) Coastal plain marsh.

(vi) Interdunal wetland.

(vii) Lakeplain wet prairie.

(viii) Lakeplain wet-mesic prairie.

(ix) Northern wet-mesic prairie.

(x) Wet-mesic prairie.

(xi) Wet prairie.

(xii) Prairie fen.

(xiii) Northern fen.

(xiv) Patterned fen.

(xv) Poor fen.

(xvi) Muskeg.

(xvii) Rich conifer swamp.

(xviii) Relict conifer swamp.

(xix) Hardwood-conifer swamp.

(xx) Northern swamp.

(xxi) Southern swamp.

(xxii) Southern floodplain forest.

(xxiii) Inundated shrub swamp.

(l) "Water dependent" means requiring access or proximity to or siting within an aquatic site to fulfill its basic purpose.

(m) "Wetland" means land characterized by the presence of water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances does support, wetland vegetation or aquatic life, and is commonly referred to as a bog, swamp, or marsh, and which is any of the following:

(i) Contiguous to the Great Lakes or Lake St. Clair, an inland lake or pond, or a river or stream.

(ii) Not contiguous to the Great Lakes, an inland lake or pond, or a river or stream; and more than 5 acres in size.

(iii) Not contiguous to the Great Lakes, an inland lake or pond, or a river or stream; and 5 acres or less in size if the department determines that protection of the area is essential to the preservation of the natural resources of the state from pollution, impairment, or destruction and the department has so notified the owner.

(2) The department and local units of government shall apply the technical wetland delineation standards set forth in the United States army corps of engineers January 1987 wetland delineation manual, technical report Y-87-1, and appropriate regional United States army corps of engineers supplements, in identifying wetland boundaries under this part, including, but not limited to, section 30307.


History: Add. 1995, Act 59, Imd. Eff. May 24, 1995 ;-- Am. 2003, Act 14, Imd. Eff. June 5, 2003 ;-- Am. 2009, Act 120, Eff. Nov. 6, 2009 ;-- Am. 2012, Act 247, Imd. Eff. July 2, 2012

Compiler's Notes: For transfer of authority, powers, duties, functions, and responsibilities of the Land and Water Management Division, with the exception of the farmland and open space preservation program, natural rivers program, and Michigan information resource inventory system, to the Director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, see E.R.O. No. 1995-16, compiled at MCL 324.99901 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.Enacting section 1 of Act 120 of 2009 provides:"Enacting section 1. This amendatory act does not take effect unless both of the following requirements are met:"(a) $4,000,000.00 from the cleanup and redevelopment trust fund created in section 3e of 1976 IL 1, MCL 445.573e, and $4,000,000.00 from the community pollution prevention fund created in section 3f of 1976 IL 1, MCL 445.573f, is appropriated by the legislature to the environmental protection fund created in section 503a of the natural resources and environmental protection act, 1994 PA 451, MCL 324.503a."(b) $2,000,000.00 is appropriated by the legislature from the environmental protection fund to support the program under part 303 of the natural resources and environmental protection act, 1994 PA 451, MCL 324.30301 to 324.30329."
Popular Name: Act 451
Popular Name: NREPA
Popular Name: Wetland Protection Act


Section: 324.30301  324.30302  324.30303  324.30303b  324.30303d  324.30304  324.30304b  324.30305  324.30305b  324.30306  324.30306b  324.30307  324.30308  324.30309  324.30310  Next

Last modified: October 10, 2016