Bill > S403

This bill establishes standards for restoring and maintaining streamflows, water levels, and hydrologic regimes to protect natural aquatic life in rivers and streams. It amends Chapter 21G of the General Laws by defining "Division" as the division of fisheries and wildlife and requires the department to adopt regulations, after consulting with an advisory committee and with approval from the commission and the director of the division, to establish these streamflow standards. These regulations must incorporate criteria, goals, and conditions set by the division of fisheries and wildlife, and be promulgated within one year of the division establishing those criteria. The bill also amends Chapter 21G to require that all feasible means be taken to avoid, minimize, and mitigate the impacts of water withdrawals on the natural environment, with mitigation occurring upstream in the same sub-basin or basin as the withdrawal, and allows for third-party agreements for mitigation. Furthermore, it amends Chapter 131 of the General Laws to require the division of fisheries and wildlife to establish aquatic habitat criteria and goals based on the best available science to maintain and restore streamflows and water levels protective of natural aquatic life, considering the natural hydrological cycle and site-specific attributes of water sources, and to define the range of existing aquatic habitat conditions in Massachusetts.