(a) The department, in cooperation with those agencies specified in Section 1786, shall adopt regulations that establish standards and criteria for the bank site qualification process, for the evaluation of wetland habitat acreage and values created at the bank sites, and for the operation and evaluation of bank sites, and any other regulations that are necessary to implement this chapter.

These criteria shall require, at a minimum, that the newly created wetland provide the hydrologic, vegetative, and wildlife characteristics, including the food web components, of a naturally occurring wetland system that is equal to the site being mitigated.

(b) With respect to bank site standards and operator qualifications, the department shall consider, at a minimum, all of the following criteria:

(1) A requirement that the bank site have a reliable, adequate, and available water supply necessary to provide wetland values. For wetlands dependent only on rainfall, rainfall satisfies this requirement.

(2) The relative ease or difficulty of converting uplands into wetlands at the bank site.

(3) The anticipated maintenance necessary to sustain the recreated and created wetlands at the bank site.

(4) The proximity of the bank site to other established preserves or natural features historically associated with abundant wildlife values.

(5) The proximity of the bank site to urban or populated areas that could reduce the bank site’s long-term biological values.

(6) The demonstrated ability of the bank site operator to create, administer, maintain, and protect the bank site in perpetuity in its enhanced state, including financial, technical, and management ability.

(7) The relative abundance or scarcity of the wetland type to be created at the bank site.

(c) A bank site or mitigation bank site may include any lands on which rice is grown as long as those lands are managed as ricelands with the required enhanced wetland values if they otherwise qualify under this chapter and either of the following conditions exist:

(1) The lands are lands on which rice was grown after January 1, 1996. For purposes of this paragraph, to qualify as new wetland values, rice shall not have been grown on the lands for 10 years before the application is submitted pursuant to Section 1785.

(2) The lands are lands on which rice was grown before January 1, 1996. These lands shall qualify only if there is an increase in wetland habitat value that is equal to the site being mitigated. For purposes of this paragraph, a wetland value shall only be provided for lands on which rice was grown that are proposed for wetlands mitigation for the period when that land is flooded between the harvesting of rice and the planting of the next crop. This paragraph shall apply only to lands that were not flooded after harvest between January 1, 1982, and January 1, 1992.

(d) Any mitigation site established pursuant to subdivision (c) may be replaced by a new site of an equal wetland value.

(e) This section shall not be construed to permit waters used to flood rice fields in order to create wetlands mitigation to be credited as beneficial to wildlife under federal law.

(Amended by Stats. 1996, Ch. 37, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 1997.)