Article 1. General Provisions of California Fish And Game Code >> Division 2. >> Chapter 7.8. >> Article 1.

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Wetlands Mitigation Bank Act of 1993.

The Legislature finds and declares the following:
  (a) Wetlands are an important natural resource of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley because they provide significant habitat for migratory waterfowl of the Pacific flyway, for endangered species, and for many other resident wildlife and fish populations. Wetlands provide additional public benefits, including water quality improvement, flood protection, stream bank stabilization, recreation, and scientific research.
  (b) Active and voluntary involvement by private landowners is necessary for the long-term availability and productivity of wetlands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley.
  (c) Large wetland preserves in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley, under certain circumstances, can provide an environmentally preferable alternative to a number of small, isolated wetland preserves of the same type surrounded by urban development.
  (d) It is the policy of the state with respect to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley:
  (1) To provide for the protection, preservation, restoration, enhancement, and expansion of the wetland habitat in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley.
  (2) To promote the protection, preservation, restoration, enhancement, and expansion of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley wetlands in concert with other federal, state, and local programs, and interested parties.
  (3) To improve cooperative efforts among private, nonprofit, and public entities for the management and protection of wetlands.
  (4) To assure that no net loss of either wetland acreage or habitat values results from activities pursuant to this chapter in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley that otherwise comply with state and federal law.
  (5) To encourage and maintain a predictable, efficient, and timely regulatory framework for environmentally acceptable development.
  (6) To assure that the construction or maintenance of wetland mitigation banks in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley does not reduce any local tax base, does not create any uncompensated increased requirement for local services, and does not create conditions that have the potential to adversely affect the public health.
  (7) To provide an alternative for accomplishing offsite mitigation in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley when offsite mitigation is required under a fill permit issued pursuant to Section 404 of the federal Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. Sec. 1344 et seq.).
  (e) This chapter constitutes a nonexclusive alternative to other lawful methods of mitigating project impacts upon wetlands and maintaining and increasing wetlands acreage and habitat values generally. Specifically, this chapter is not intended to, and shall not be interpreted to:
  (1) Condone or encourage the removal, loss, or degradation of wetlands.
  (2) Condone or encourage the removal, loss, or degradation of habitat for any rare, threatened, or endangered species.
  (3) Abrogate any other local, state, or federal law or policy relating to wetlands, nor prohibit any city or county from prohibiting the removal, filling, or other destruction of particular wetlands.
  (4) Establish maximum or minimum standards or any other requirements for wetland fill or mitigation, except for mitigation banks established pursuant to this chapter.
  (5) Have legal or necessary precedential application to any other area of the state, or to other lands, resources, situations, or circumstances.
  (6) Preclude other forms of mitigation banking, including private or for-profit programs, within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley.
  (7) Be the exclusive method of providing compensation by permittees for the loss of wetlands within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley.

It is the intent of the Legislature that the funds necessary to cover the costs of administering this chapter be provided by the purchase of credits in mitigation bank sites.

Unless the context otherwise requires, the definitions in this article govern the construction of this chapter.

"Bank site" or "mitigation bank site" means a publicly or privately owned and operated site on which wetlands have been or will be created in accordance with this chapter to compensate for adverse impacts caused by removal or fill permit activities authorized pursuant to Section 404 of the federal Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. Sec. 1344 et seq.). "Bank site" or "mitigation bank site" may include land on which rice is grown as long as those lands are managed as ricelands and those lands meet the other requirements of Section 1784.

"Credit" means a numerical value that represents the wetland acreage and habitat values of a mitigation bank site.

"Operator" means the department, or a public or private person or entity approved by the department, to administer a wetlands mitigation bank site.

"Permittee" means a public or private person or entity that meets all of the following conditions:
  (a) Has received a permit pursuant to Section 404 of the federal Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. Sec. 1344 et seq.) for the removal or filling of wetlands, subject to a condition that allows the permittee to compensate for the wetland loss through participation in a wetland mitigation bank pursuant to this chapter.
  (b) Proposes to compensate for the loss of the wetlands through participation in a wetlands mitigation bank pursuant to this chapter.
  (c) Proposes the discharge at a site within a qualifying urban area and not more than 40 miles from a bank site with sufficient acreage of the same types of wetlands that will provide suitable replacement habitat for the values that may be lost from the conversion of the existing wetlands.

"Qualifying urban area" means any of the following when they occur within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley:
  (a) A geographical area having a population of 50,000 or more inhabitants within the jurisdiction of a city, or a town, as defined by Sections 20 and 21 of the Government Code.
  (b) A portion of any geographical area within a town, as defined in Section 21 of the Government Code, which has a population density equal to, or exceeding, 1,500 persons per square mile and which has a population of 50,000 or more inhabitants.
  (c) A geographical area having a population density equal to, or exceeding, 1,500 persons per square mile, and an adjacent city, as defined in Section 20 of the Government Code, where the combined population of the geographical area and the city equals 50,000 or more inhabitants.
  (d) A geographical area within the sphere of influence of a city or community services district for which the projected population of the adopted general plan equals 10,000 or more inhabitants.

"Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley" means the central valley region, as defined in subdivision (g) of Section 13200 of the Water Code.