11/28/2001 Env Bd Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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GENERAL POLICY STATEMENT The Rice Creek Watershed District (District) is a political subdivision of the State of Minnesota, established under the Minnesota Watershed Law. The District is also a watershed management organization as defined under the Minnesota Metropolitan Surface Water Management Act, and is subject to the directives and authorizations in that Act. Under the Watershed Law, and the Metropolitan Surface Water Management Act, the District exercises a series of powers to accomplish its statutory purposes. The District's general statutory purpose is to conserve natural resources through development planning, flood control, and other conservation projects, based upon sound scientific principles. As required under the Metropolitan Surface Water Management Act, the District has adopted a Watershed Management Plan, which . contains the framework and guiding principles for the District in carrying out its statutory purposes. It is the District's intent to implement the Plan'`s principles and objectives in these rules. Land alteration affects the rate, volume, and quality of surface water runoff which ultimately must be accommodated by the existing surface water systems within the District. The watershed is large, 201 square miles, and its outlet, Rice Creek, has limited capacity to carry flows. Flooding problems already occur in the District's urbanized areas along lower Rice Creek and other localized areas. Land alteration and utilization also can degrade the quality of runoff entering the streams and waterbodies of the District due to non -point source pollution. Lake and stream sedimentation from ongoing erosion processes and construction activities reduces the hydraulic capacity of waterbodies and degrades water quality. Water quality problems already exist in many of the lakes and streams throughout the District. Projects which increase the rate or volume of stormwater runoff can aggravate existing flooding problems and contribute to new ones. Projects which degrade runoff quality can aggravate existing water quality problems and contribute to new ones. Projects which fill floodplain or wetland areas can aggravate existing flooding by reducing flood storage and hydraulic capacity of waterbodies, and can degrade water quality by eliminating the filtering capacity of those areas. In these rules the District seeks to protect the public health and welfare and the natural resources of the District by providing reasonable regulation of the modification or alteration of the District's lands and waters to reduce the severity and frequency of flooding and high water, to preserve floodplain and wetland storage capacity, to improve the chemical, physical and biological quality of surface water, to reduce sedimentation, to preserve 1 •