Sec.22a-339d-1. Definitions, practice and procedures

(a) Definitions

"Applicant" means municipality or lake association.

"Agreement" means a written contract between the Department of Environmental Protection and an applicant for a diagnostic feasibility study or eutrophication abatement project.

"Baseline study" means the acquisition of data and information about lake quality and characteristics necessary to assign a priority rating.

"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Environmental Protection.

"Construction" means building, erecting, or installing structural components of lake management or watershed management programs and any lake sediment removal program.

"DEP Trophic Classification Inventory" means Department of Environmental Protection Bulletin No. 3, A Trophic Classification Inventory of Seventy Connecticut Lakes, 1980, as may be amended.

"Diagnostic feasibility study" means a study to characterize lake water quality conditions, identify watershed sources of nutrients and sediments, and evaluate lake management activities and watershed management activities to abate eutrophication.

"Eutrophication" means nutrient enrichment or sedimentation causing excessive phytoplankton, macrophyton, or dissolved oxygen depletion which impairs recreation.

"Eutrophication abatement" means the implementation of lake management activities and watershed management activities to prevent, reduce, or correct eutrophication.

"Federal Act" means the Federal Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et. seq., as amended).

"Implementation" means the process of accomplishing lake management activities and watershed management activities recommended by a diagnostic feasibility study.

"Lake" means all natural and artificial impounded bodies of water listed by the Secretary of the State as lakes, ponds, and reservoirs pursuant to section 3-100 of the General Statutes.

"Lake association" means a lake association as defined by section 1 of Public Act 87-492.

"Lake management activities" means procedures and processes implemented within a lake to achieve eutrophication abatement.

"Municipality" means municipality as defined in section 22a-423 of the General Statutes or a lake authority established pursuant to section 7-151a of the General Statutes.

"Public recreation" means the right of ingress by the general public for water based recreation through some form of access without charge or at a fee determined to be reasonable by the Commissioner.

"Project" means project as defined in section 1 of Public Act 87-492. "Regional population" means the sum of the populations of all towns with a boundary line within ten miles of the shoreline of the lake.

"Subagreement" means a written agreement between a grant recipient and another party for services, supplies, equipment, or construction necessary to conduct a diagnostic feasibility study or implement a eutrophication abatement project.

"Watershed" means that land area from which water drains into a lake.

"Watershed management activities" means procedures and processes implemented within a lake watershed to achieve eutrophication abatement through control of nutrients and sediments.

(b) Eligibility. The Commissioner may make grants to municipalities and lake associations which have completed baseline studies and qualify for funding of the costs of diagnostic feasibility studies and eutrophication abatement programs for lakes used for public recreation, according to the criteria of the state priority rating system.

(c) State Priority System. Each project application shall be given points as applicable for each of the following rating criteria, the sum of which shall determine its priority number. These criteria are consistent with the rating system used by the Commissioner to establish priorities for federal lakes management grants under section 314 of the Federal Act.

Priority Rating Point System
I. Lake Water Quality (35 points maximum)
	A. Trophic Classification, as determined by methods and procedures in the DEP Trophic Classification Inventory.
		1. Oligotrophic	— 30 points
		2. Mesotrophic	— 5 points
		3. Eutrophic	— 20 points
		4. Highly Eutrophic	— 35 points
	B. Aquatic Macrophytes, as determined by methods and procedures in the DEP Trophic Classification Inventory.
		1. Mesotrophic or eutrophic lakes with macrophyte beds occupying more than 30% of total lake surface area		— an additional 10 points
II. Recreation Opportunities (70 points maximum)
	A. Regional Population (25 points maximum)
		1. Greater than 500,000	— 25 points
		2. 100,000 to 500,000	— 15 points
		3. Less than 100,000	— 5 points
	B. State Owned Or Leased Access (20 points maximum)
		1. Boat Launch	— 15 points
		2. Park	— 5 points
	C. Town and Lake Association Owned Or Leased Access (15 points maximum)
		1. Town Beach, each	— 5 points
		2. Association Beach, each	— 5 points
	D. Recreational Fisheries (10 points maximum)
		1. Fisheries Impaired By Eutrophication (As determined by DEP Fisheries Bureau)		— 10 points
III. Lake Size (45 points maximum)
	A. Surface Area
		1. Greater than 325 acres	— 25 points
		2. Between 175 and 325 acres	— 20 points
		3. Between 90 and 174 acres	— 15 points
		4. Between 50 and 89 acres	— 10 points
		5. Between 10 and 49 acres	— 5 point
		6. Less than 10 acres	— 0 points
	B. Maximum Depth
		1. Greater than 50 feet	— 20 points
		2. Between 20 and 50 feet	— 15 points
		3. Between 12 and 19 feet	— 10 points
		4. Less than 12 feet	— 15 points
IV. Project Status (30 points maximum)
	A. Diagnostic Feasibility Grants
		1. Diagnostic feasibility study not initiated	— 15 points
		2. Diagnostic feasibility study not initiated, to include innovative research with statewide applications		— 25 points
		3. Diagnostic feasibility study initiated but incomplete	— 30 points
		4. Eutrophication abatement initiated, additional diagnostic feasibility study needed		— 5 points
		5. Eutrophication abatement initiated, additional diagnostic feasibility study needed, to include innovative research with statewide applications		— 15 points
	B. Eutrophication Abatement Grants
		1. Diagnostic feasibility study complete, eutrophication abatement not initiated		— 20 points
		2. Eutrophication abatement initiated, incomplete		— 30 points
V. Natural Trophic Tendency (20 points maximum) The natural trophic tendency of a lake is determined by procedures described in "A Connecticut Lakes Management Program Effort," Proceedings: Lake Management Conference, University of Connecticut, Institute of Water Resources, Report No. 30, March 1979.
	A. Oligotrophic Tendency			— 20 points
	B. Mesotrophic Tendency			— 15 points
	C. Eutrophic Tendency			— 5 points

(d) State Project Priority List

(1) Priority List.

The Commissioner may prepare a listing of projects ranked according to their priority ratings, for which state grant assistance shall be made available for the period effective October 1 to the following September 30, the program funding year, corresponding to the federal fiscal year. The priority list shall contain two parts, a fundable part and a planning part. The fundable part shall consist of those highest priority projects ready to proceed and anticipated to be funded within the current fiscal year. The planning part shall consist of those projects that may be funded from future funding authorizations.

(2) Annual Public Hearing.

The allocation of funds to projects on the priority list shall be determined annually by the Commissioner based upon available funding and applications received prior to October 1, 1988 and prior to August 1 of each succeeding year. The draft priority list will indicate which specific projects are proposed to receive funding for the upcoming program funding year and shall be made public at least 30 days prior to a specified date for a public hearing. The Commissioner will consider all written and oral testimony presented at the hearing and may elect to modify the draft priority list on the basis of such testimony. The Commissioner shall also indicate his or her reasons for accepting or rejecting any suggested revisions as part of the hearing record. Following notice of any changes to the priority list which may result from the hearing, the priority list shall be deemed final except for minor revisions allowable under subdivision (3) of this subsection.

(3) Revisions to the Priority List.

The Commissioner may remove a project from the fundable part to the planning part of the priority list if he or she determines that the bypassed project will not be ready to proceed within the first six months of the funding year. The Commissioner shall advise, in writing, each applicant which he or she intends to bypass and the reasons therefor. Projects bypassed will be replaced by the next highest ranking project ready to proceed. Projects will be removed from the priority list the following year after they receive a grant, except for segmented projects described in subdivision (4) of this subsection.

(4) Segmented Projects.

Eutrophication abatement projects which require more than one year to implement, such as sediment removal projects, may be funded annually for costs anticipated for the subsequent year. After a segmented project receives the initial grant award, the project will remain on the top of the fundable portion of the priority lists in subsequent years until the project is completed.

(Effective July 27, 1988)