Sec. 1. (a) Except as provided in subsection (b), a person proposing a wetland activity in a state regulated wetland must obtain a permit under this chapter to authorize the wetland activity.

(b) A permit is not required for the following wetland activities:

(1) The discharge of dirt, sand, rock, stone, concrete, or other inert fill materials in a de minimis amount.

(2) A wetland activity at a surface coal mine for which the department of natural resources has approved a plan to:

(A) minimize, to the extent practical using best technology currently available, disturbances and adverse effects on fish and wildlife;

(B) otherwise effectuate environmental values; and

(C) enhance those values where practicable.

(3) Any activity listed under Section 404(f) of the Clean Water Act, including:

(A) normal farming, silviculture, and ranching activities, such as plowing, seeding, cultivating, minor drainage, harvesting for the production of food, fiber, and forest products, or upland soil and water conservation practices;

(B) maintenance, including emergency reconstruction of recently damaged parts, of currently serviceable structures such as dikes, dams, levees, groins, riprap, breakwaters, causeways, and bridge abutments or approaches, and transportation structures;

(C) construction or maintenance of farm or stock ponds or irrigation ditches, or the maintenance of drainage ditches;

(D) construction of temporary sedimentation basins on a construction site that does not include placement of fill material into the navigable waters; and

(E) construction or maintenance of farm roads or forest roads, or temporary roads for moving mining equipment, where the roads are constructed and maintained, in accordance with best management practices, to assure that:

(i) flow and circulation patterns and chemical and biological characteristics of the navigable waters are not impaired;

(ii) the reach of the navigable waters is not reduced; and

(iii) any adverse effect on the aquatic environment will be otherwise minimized.

(c) The goal of the permitting program for wetland activities in state regulated wetlands is to:

(1) promote a net gain in high quality isolated wetlands; and

(2) assure that compensatory mitigation will offset the loss of isolated wetlands allowed by the permitting program.

As added by P.L.282-2003, SEC.38.