Researcher: DD Page 1 4/14/25
OLR Bill Analysis
sHB 7174
AN ACT CONCERNING RIPARIAN AREAS.
SUMMARY
This bill broadens the applicability of the state’s Inland Wetlands and
Watercourses Act (IWWA) to include the area immediately adjacent to
and extending outward from a wetland or watercourse boundary by at
least 100 feet (the “riparian area”).
Consequently, the bill correspondingly expands the authority of
municipal inland wetlands agencies and the Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection (DEEP) to regulate activities in these areas,
which generally entails reviewing activity proposals, issuing permits,
and conducting enforcement actions. It relatedly requires DEEP to
inventory or index riparian areas and adopt any necessary regulations
to protect them, as the law already requires it to do for wetlands and
watercourses.
The bill also makes the following additional changes to the IWWA:
1. explicitly (a) excludes native vegetation clear cutting in wetland
or watercourse areas from an “as of right” use and (b) includes
revegetation in riparian areas with native vegetation and
removing invasive species as a nonregulated permitted use;
2. adds public drinking water supply areas and cold water habitat
streams to the list of things the commissioner must consider
when carrying out her responsibilities under the IWWA;
3. allows an inland wetlands agency to deny or condition an
application for a regulated activity outside of a wetlands,
watercourse, or riparian area if it will likely impact the area’s
chemical or thermal characteristics, as an agency already may do
for the physical characteristics of wetlands or watercourses; and 2025HB-07174-R00-BA.DOCX
Researcher: DD Page 2 4/14/25
4. makes many technical and conforming changes, including those
to effectuate its application to riparian areas such as, among other
things, allowing aggrieved parties to appeal decisions about
activities in riparian areas and requiring the applicants for
activities in these areas that are within a water company’s
watershed to notify the company and public health department.
Lastly, the bill requires the DEEP commissioner to prescribe, either
by permit or through adopting regulations, conditions for existing
fishways built for dams in navigable waters that are not regulated by
the Federal Energy Regulatory Authority (i.e. certain hydropower
dams) to ensure safe, timely, and effective fish passage and protect
aquatic habitat. The conditions must be implemented and paid for by
the dam’s owner or operator (§ 12).
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2025, except the provision adding the
riparian area definition to the IWWA is effective July 1, 2025.
IWWA EXPANSION — RIPARIAN AREA
The IWWA requires municipalities to regulate activities in inland
wetlands and watercourse areas within their boundaries through an
inland wetlands agency or empowering another board or commission
to carry out its responsibilities. DEEP has the regulatory authority over
state actions in these areas and for municipalities without an inland
wetlands agency.
The bill expands this oversight to generally include operations
within, or use of, a riparian area, including the removal or deposition of
material, or any obstruction, construction, alteration, or pollution, of the
riparian area.
Updating Regulations
Existing law requires DEEP to adopt regulations to protect wetlands
and watercourses. Under the bill, these regulations must also include
riparian areas. Similarly, municipal inland wetlands agencies (or the
applicable board or commission), as under existing law for wetlands
and watercourses, must adopt regulations necessary to protect riparian 2025HB-07174-R00-BA.DOCX
Researcher: DD Page 3 4/14/25
areas, either individually, or through districts.
As for wetlands and watercourses, the bill requires the local
regulations to prescribe (1) how riparian area boundaries are set or
changed, (2) how to apply for a regulated activity in these areas, (3)
notice requirements, (4) criteria for and the process of reviewing
applications, and (5) administration and enforcement requirements. (It
subjects proposed activities in riparian areas to the same statutory
application and review requirements and potential penalties for
violations as already apply for wetlands and watercourses activities (see
BACKGROUND). )
NATIVE VEGETATION
Regulated Activities
The bill explicitly includes an operation in or use of a wetland,
watercourse, or riparian area involving native vegetation removal as a
“regulated activity” under the IWWA, meaning these activities
generally cannot be done without a permit. The bill does not, however,
specify what “native vegetation” is.
Permitted Activities
As of Right. By law, certain operations and uses are permitted “as of
right” in wetlands and watercourses. Subject to certain exceptions, these
include, among other things, (1) grazing, farming, nurseries, gardening,
and harvesting crops and certain farm ponds essential to the farming
operation; (2) activities DEEP does for restoration, enhancement, or
mosquito control; and (3) uses incidental to the enjoyment and
maintenance of residential property.
The bill exempts from being an “as of right” use clear cutting native
vegetation (1) unless it is to expand agricultural crop land, as is already
the case for timber clear cutting, or (2) within 10 feet of a wetlands or
watercourse for incidental residential property enjoyment or
maintenances uses.
Unregulated Uses. The IWWA also allows certain activities in areas
under its jurisdiction (including riparian areas under the bill) as 2025HB-07174-R00-BA.DOCX
Researcher: DD Page 4 4/14/25
“nonregulated uses” if they do not disturb the natural and indigenous
character of the area by removing or depositing material, altering, or
obstructing water flow, or polluting. Examples include conservation of
natural resources, outdoor recreation, and dry hydrant installation. The
bill specifies that (1) removing or depositing material, for determining
if an activity is a nonregulated use, includes native vegetation removal
and (2) revegetating riparian areas with native vegetation and removing
invasive species is considered natural resource conservation.
BACKGROUND
Inland Wetlands and Watercourses
By law, inland “wetlands” are land areas that consist of any of the
soil types designated as poorly drained, very poorly drained, alluvial,
and floodplain by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural
Resources Conservation Service’s National Cooperative Soils Survey,
which includes submerged land, but not land bordering or lying
beneath tidal waters. “Watercourses” are, in general, rivers, streams,
brooks, waterways, lakes, ponds, marshes, swamps, bogs, and all other
bodies of water, natural or artificial, vernal, or intermittent, public, or
private, which are in, flow through, or border the state or any portion of
it (CGS § 22a-38).
Permit Application Process
By law, anyone proposing to do a regulated activity on an inland
wetland or watercourse must apply for a permit from the inland
wetlands agency of the town or towns where the wetland or
watercourse is located. Public hearings on these regulated activities may
be held, but only if (1) the agency determines the activity may
significantly affect wetlands or watercourses, (2) at least 25 people sign
a petition requesting a hearing and it is filed with the agency within 14
days after the application is received, or (3) the agency finds that a
hearing would be in the public interest.
By law, when an application receives a public hearing or the agency
finds that the proposed activity may have a significant impact on
wetlands or watercourses, it cannot issue a permit unless the DEEP
commissioner finds, on the basis of the record, no feasible and prudent 2025HB-07174-R00-BA.DOCX
Researcher: DD Page 5 4/14/25
alternative exists.
When an application is denied on a finding that there may be feasible
and prudent alternatives to the proposed regulated activity that would
have a less adverse impact on wetlands or watercourses, the
commissioner or the agency must propose on the record the types of
alternatives that the applicant may investigate.
Enforcement
State law permits municipal inland wetlands agencies, if they
determine that a person is violating the IWWA or the associated local
ordinance, to issue cease-and-desist orders, impose civil fines of up to
$1,000 per offense, or ask a court to impose issue certain orders or
penalties. Higher penalties apply for willful or knowing violations
(CGA § 22a-44).
COMMITTEE ACTION
Environment Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 24 Nay 9 (03/24/2025)