07/25/2007 Env Bd Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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• VIII. RULE G: BRIDGES AND CULVERT CROSSINGS Proposed Rule G adds a clarification with respect to crossings or culverts on public ditch systems (Section 3). The present rule requires structures to preserve hydraulic capacity "equivalent [to the] existing condition." Benefited lands draining to a ditch system, generally speaking, have a legal right to the hydraulic capacity corresponding to the ditch as originally constructed. This may or may not correspond to the "existing condition." For example, a culvert being replaced may have been installed erroneously at an elevation above the as- constructed profile. Under state law, the owner of a culvert or other crossing structure is responsible to ensure its structure does not obstruct a public ditch and must bear the cost to remove an obstruction. At the same time, if much time has passed since it last was necessary to reestablish the full as- constructed profile, the details of this profile may not be immediately available to the District as ditch authority, or the permittee. The District undertakes formal proceedings to establish this official profile when necessary for larger -scale hydraulic or hydrologic work within the contributing area of a ditch system, but these proceedings and the engineering investigations on which they are based can be time consuming and expensive. Accordingly, the District cannot perform this work for each culvert crossing that is proposed. Where the Board of Managers has not established the official profile, the District's practice has been to advise the permittee of this and to state in the permit that the permittee bears the risk that the structure later may be found to be an obstruction within the meaning of the ditch law. The proposed rule would state this explicitly, to ensure the applicant understands the risk it will assume, and - in the event it is later found that the structure lies above the official profile -- to protect benefited lands from a claim that the crossing structure was approved by the ditch authority and therefore not subject to the ditch authority's power to direct removal. IX. RULE H: SHORELAND DEVELOPMENT The Shoreline Development rule has been entirely deleted, reflecting the effective coverage of this area by municipal shoreland ordinances. X. RULE I: DRAINAGE SYSTEMS • 19