St. Paul, Minn. – The Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) requests public comments on potential amendments to the Chapter 8420 Rule governing the state’s Wetland Conservation Act (WCA).
Any comments submitted will be added to previous comment period input to be considered during the upcoming rulemaking process.
Proposed rules will be drafted after public comments are received. Members of the public will have another opportunity to comment after the rules are formally proposed.
Comments will be accepted until 4:30 p.m. on March 19, 2022. Written comments, questions, requests to receive a draft of the rules once they are available, and requests for more information on the rulemaking process can be directed to BWSR Wetlands Section Manager Les Lemm. Written comments can be submitted by emailing les.lemm@state.mn.us, or by mail using the address 520 Lafayette Road North, St. Paul, MN 55155.
State statute requires BWSR to adopt rules to implement the WCA, including the approval of wetland value replacement plans. The rules were originally adopted in 1993 and have been amended several times, with the current rules adopted in 2009. A primary purpose of this rulemaking process will be to reconcile the current rules with statute changes that have been made in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017. Information on these statute changes is available on BWSR’s website.