The New Jersey Departmnet of Environmental Protection is proposing comprhensive amendments to the Flood Hazard Area Control Act Rules to reduce unnecessary regulartory burden, add appropriate felxibility, provide better consistency with Federal, local and other State requirements, and address implementation issues identified since the chapter’s repeal and repromulgation in November 2007. A public hearing concerning the proposal is scheduled for June 22 at 10 a.m. at the New Jersey Department of Environment Protection located at 401 East State Street in Trenton.
The proposal adjusts the area of riparian zone disturbance that can be authorized only under a hardship exception. The proposal also provides additonal options for riparian zone compensation, which mirror the Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act rules and proposed Coastal rules, and facilitates the restoration of impaired riparian zones, such as “daylighting” streams by removing culverts that enclose them.
The proposal additionally consolidates the Special Water Resource Protection Area and 300-foot riparian zone thereby better protecting the State’s most ecologically sensitive streams and rivers. It eliminates duplicative requirements that are enforced by local Soil Conservation Districts in areas that possess acid=producing soil deposits.
With this proposal, the department intends to align the rules governing the permitting processes of all three programs to the extent the respective enabling statutes allow.
A copy of the proposal is available at nj.gov/dep/rules/proposals/20150601a.pdf.
