The applicant shall submit an application on such form as the commissioner may prescribe and with such information as the commissioner deems necessary to fulfill the purposes of sections 22a-365 to 22a-378, inclusive, including but not limited to:

(1) The need for the diversion;

(2) The reasons for the diversion and the use of the diverted water;

(3) A description of the existing water system where the diversion is proposed;

(4) The locations of withdrawals and discharges of water the applicant proposes to divert;

(5) The quantity, frequency and rate of water the applicant proposes to divert;

(6) The length of time for which the diversion permit is sought;

(7) The effect of the proposed diversion on public water supplies, water quality, wastewater treatment needs, flood management, water-based recreation, wetland habitats, waste assimilation, agriculture, fish and wildlife and low flow requirements;

(8) The alternatives, if any, to the proposed diversion including a study of cost factors, feasibility and environmental effects of such alternatives;

(9) Conservation measures instituted by the applicant prior to the application and the applicant's long-range water conservation plan to be implemented or continued after the issuance of a permit pursuant to sections 22a-365 to 22a-378, inclusive. The plan shall be prepared in accordance with the memorandum of understanding entered into pursuant to section 4-67e and shall provide for: (A) The identification of and cost effectiveness of distribution system rehabilitation to correct sources of lost water; (B) measures which encourage proper maintenance and water conservation; (C) a public information program to promote water conservation, including industrial and commercial recycling and reuse and (D) contingency measures for limiting water use during seasonal or drought shortages;

(10) In the case of a proposed interbasin transfer the commissioner may request the applicant to file an environmental impact report on the transfer which (A) considers the effect of the transfer on present and future water uses in the proposed donor basin; (B) includes a plan for meeting water supply needs and demands in the donor basin for a minimum of twenty-five years; and (C) analyzes the alternative solutions to the water supply or wastewater problem including comparative cost analysis of the proposed transfer relative to alternative measures. In making such request, the commissioner shall indicate which aspect of such report enumerated in subparagraphs (A), (B) and (C) of this subdivision requires the submission of the environmental impact report with the application.

(P.A. 82-402, S. 5, 16; P.A. 89-327, S. 4, 7; P.A. 95-94, S. 2.)

History: P.A. 89-327 amended Subdiv. (9) to require that long-range water conservation plan be prepared in accordance with the memorandum of understanding; P.A. 95-94 amended Subdiv. (10) to delete the requirement that an applicant file an environmental impact report and instead allowed the commissioner to request it and to require the commissioner to indicate which aspect requires an impact report.

The Connecticut Water Diversion Policy Act generally does not empower department to request information to determine the extent and environmental effects of diversions other than those for which a permit is sought; in the context of the permit review process for plaintiff's proposed withdrawals of water, department's attempt to regulate plaintiff's excavation activities either as an effect of the proposed diversion or as a diversion in and of itself, by requesting information about the effect of excavation activities on wetlands, exceeds the authority granted by the act and constitutes a regulatory end run around the requirement that department determine, in the first instance, that plaintiff's excavation activities constitute diversions. 317 C. 628.

Cited. 28 CA 674.