§ 27-331. Declaration of intent.

The board desires to avoid water pollution and the resultant environmental degradation by protecting the Everglades wetlands and waters of Broward County (county) because of their value to the maintenance of the quality of life, public drinking water supply, flood storage, groundwater recharge and discharge, recreation, propagation of fish and wildlife, and the public health, safety and welfare, and hereby declares that:

(1)

It is the purpose and intent of this article to maintain the functions and values provided by aquatic and wetland resources so that there will be no overall net loss in the functions and values and to strive for a net resource gain in aquatic and wetland resources over present conditions.

(2)

The alteration of existing regulated aquatic or jurisdictional wetland areas may have an adverse environmental impact on the waters of Broward County and on the ecological functional values provided by those areas which causes adverse impacts to the people and biota of Broward County. This adverse impact must be regulated by avoidance as the first priority, minimized as a second priority, or mitigated as a third priority.

(3)

Wetland resource alteration includes the dredging, filling, drainage or flooding of jurisdictional wetland areas.

(4)

Dredging and filling or aquatic resource alteration projects include, without limitation, construction or replacement of seawalls, bulkheads, docks and piers, the filling of any existing regulated water body, the creation of new canals or lakes within upland areas, maintenance dredging of existing canals, ditches or waterways, installation of pilings, buoys or aids to navigation, the installation of subaqueous utility crossings or lines, the construction or replacement of bridges, the removal or alteration of any mangroves as defined within Chapter 373, pt. IV, F.S. (§ 373.403, F.S. et seq.), and Chapter 403, F.S., as amended, and any other work done in, on or under the waters of Broward County, except for those activities specifically exempted by this article.

(5)

Although some dredging and filling, aquatic resource alteration and wetland alteration activities in the waters or wetland resources of Broward County may by themselves have a minor impact, the cumulative effect of several otherwise unrelated changes can result in a major impairment of aquatic or wetland resources.

(Ord. No. 90-49, § 1(27-11.01), 12-18-90; Ord. No. 93-49, § 1, 11-23-93)