NHDES begins work on second draft of wetland rules

New series of sessions to review stakeholder comments

The NH Department of Environmental Services is working on a second draft of its proposed wetland rules, following a series of sessions to garner comments from various stakeholders around the state.

According to the agency, it used the input sessions to “identify areas in the drafts that require further clarification.” As a result, the agency said, it is reconvening its wetland rules workgroup and plans to hold additional stakeholder meetings “to better understand and address the comments and suggestions” that arose from the public sessions. Eight workgroup sessions are scheduled to begin Wednesday, June 6 and run through Sept. 19, A list of the sessions can be found here.

The agency said its goal is to complete the second round of input sessions and comment reviews Focus Input Sessions and comment reviews in time to come up with a second draft of the rules in the fall. 

NHDES released the first draft of the rules – the first complete rewrite since 1991 – on Jan. 31. Following that, the agency held five public sessions around the state and took public comments through April 20. (The written comments are available here.)