Agenda - Environmental Policy Board - 02/22/2016

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1 MINNESOTA STATUTES 2015 103F.48 103F.48 RIPARIAN PROTECTION AND WATER QUALITY PRACTICES. Subdivision 1. Definitions. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the meanings given them. (b) "Board" means the Board of Water and Soil Resources. (c) "Buffer" means an area consisting of perennial vegetation, excluding invasive plants and noxious weeds, adjacent to all bodies of water within the state and that protects the water resources of the state from runoff pollution; stabilizes soils, shores, and banks; and protects or provides riparian corridors. (d) "Buffer protection map" means buffer maps established and maintained by the commissioner of natural resources. (e) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of natural resources. (f) "Executive director" means the executive director of the Board of Water and Soil Resources. (g) "Local water management authority" means a watershed district, metropolitan water management organization, or county operating separately or jointly in its role as local water management authority under chapter 103B or 103D. (h) "Normal water level" means the level evidenced by the long-term presence of surface water as indicated directly by hydrophytic plants or hydric soils or indirectly determined via hydrological models or analysis. (i) "Public waters" has the meaning given in section 103G.005, subdivision 15. Subd. 2. Purpose. It is the policy of the state to establish riparian buffers and water quality practices to: (1) protect state water resources from erosion and runoff pollution; (2) stabilize soils, shores, and banks; and (3) protect or provide riparian corridors. Subd. 3. Water resources riparian protection requirements on public waters and public drainage systems. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b), landowners owning property adjacent to a water body identified and mapped on a buffer protection map must maintain a buffer to protect the state's water resources as follows: (1) for all public waters, the more restrictive of: (i) a 50 -foot average width, 30 -foot minimum width, continuous buffer of perennially rooted vegetation; or (ii) the state shoreland standards and criteria adopted by the commissioner under section 103F.211; and (2) for public drainage systems established under chapter 103E, a 16.5 -foot minimum width continuous buffer of perennially rooted vegetation on ditches within the benefited area of public drainage systems. (b) A landowner owning property adjacent to a water body identified in a buffer protection map and whose property is used for cultivation farming may meet the requirements under paragraph (a) by adopting an alternative riparian water quality practice, or combination of structural, vegetative, and management practices, based on the Natural Resources Conservation Service Field Office Technical Guide or other Copyright OO 2015 by the Revisor of Statutes, State of Minnesota. All Rights Reserved.