S-1554.1 _______________________________________________
SENATE BILL 5894
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State of Washington 54th Legislature 1995 Regular Session
By Senators Prentice, Owen, Haugen, Wood, Kohl, Fairley, Sellar, Rasmussen, Oke, Schow and Winsley
Read first time 02/13/95. Referred to Committee on Transportation.
AN ACT Relating to wetlands owned by the department of transportation; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The department of transportation shall develop a strategic plan for the long-term monitoring and maintenance of wetlands owned by the department. The plan must consider:
(1) An evaluation of the long-term monitoring and maintenance costs of existing and planned sites;
(2) The feasibility of developing wetland banks that could be used by other public entities. Consideration must be given to allocating costs for the initial development of a bank and to prorating ongoing monitoring and maintenance costs;
(3) The feasibility of selling, contracting, or transferring title of department-owned wetland bank property or mitigation sites to other public agencies or nonprofit environmental corporations;
(4) A legal analysis of the state constitutional prohibition against lending of the state's credit;
(5) An analysis of the statutory barriers prohibiting mitigation of wetland losses on a regional or watershed basis and recommendations for achieving a regional or watershed approach to mitigation;
(6) A summary of planned or potential wetland banks; and
(7) An analysis of how wetland habitat can be valued and quantified and how mitigation credits could be developed.
The department shall present the strategic plan to the standing committees on transportation of the senate and the house of representatives no later than January 15, 1997.
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