§ 2-1-21 Approval of director. – (a) No person, firm, industry, company, corporation, city, town, municipal or state agency, fire district, club, nonprofit agency, or other individual or group may excavate; drain; fill; place trash, garbage, sewage, highway runoff, drainage ditch effluents, earth, rock, borrow, gravel, sand, clay, peat, or other materials or effluents upon; divert water flows into or out of; dike; dam; divert; change; add to or take from or otherwise alter the character of any fresh water wetland as defined in § 2-1-20 without first obtaining the approval of the director of the department of environmental management.
(2) Approval will be denied if in the opinion of the director granting of approval would not be in the best public interest. Approval shall not be granted if the city council or town council of the municipality within whose borders the project lies disapproves within the forty-five (45) days provided for objections set forth in § 2-1-22. Disapproval does not preclude the director of the department of environmental management from granting an approval of alterations of wetlands relating to a state highway project proposed by the department of transportation that passes through or crosses two (2) or more municipalities.
(3) Appeal from a denial may be made to the superior court.
(4) In the event of any alteration by a city or town of surface water impoundments used for drinking water supply, limited to maintenance within existing boundary perimeters of the impoundment, no approval shall be required. The city or town advises the director at least twenty (20) days prior to commencing the maintenance work. The city or town shall advise the director in writing, describing the location and nature of the work, anticipated times of commencement and completion, and methods to be used to reduce adverse impacts on the wetland. The director shall advise the city or town of any concerns with the impact of the proposed maintenance on the wetland and water quality.
(b) Whenever a landowner is denied approval to alter a wetland by the director, or by the city or town within whose borders the wetland lies under subsection (a), the landowner may elect to have the state, or the city or town, acquire the land involved by petitioning to the superior court. If the court determines that the proposed alteration would not essentially change the natural character of the land, would not be unsuited to the land in the natural state, and would not injure the rights of others, the court shall, upon determining the fair market value of the wetland, based upon its value as a wetland, direct the state, if approval was denied by the director, or the city or town, if approval was denied by the city or town, or both, if they concur in the disapproval, to pay to the landowner the fair market value of the wetland. If the state, or the city or town, or both, where both are ordered to pay, declines the acquisition, the landowner may proceed to alter the wetland as initially requested. Any amount paid by the state shall be paid from any funds in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. If the director of environmental management alone denied approval under subsection (a), then the state shall make payment. If the city or town alone denied approval under subsection (a), then the city or town shall make payment. If both the state and the city or town denied approval, then payment shall be shared equally by the state and the city or town.