(a) Before any wetlands are created on the bank site qualified pursuant to Section 1785, the department shall coordinate and shall be a signatory to a memorandum of understanding with the operator. The United States Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States Department of the Interior, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, and the State Department of Health Services or its designee, or any of them, may be signatories by indicating to the department their interest in participating within 90 days of being notified by the department of the department’s intent to initiate the procedures described in this section. Any county located in whole or in part in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley may, by ordinance, require that it be a signatory to any memorandum of understanding for a bank site to be established within its boundary.
(b) The memorandum of understanding shall include, but is not limited to, all of the following items:
(1) Identification of the mitigation bank site, including the legal property description, acreage, types, and location of existing wetlands within the boundaries of the bank site.
(2) An agreement, by each of the governmental agencies in subdivision (a), that all new, successfully created wetland acreage shall qualify to be credited against the approved removal or fill of wetlands located in the qualifying urban area and within 40 miles of the bank site and is consistent with the procedures set out in this chapter.
(3) An agreement by the operator to do both of the following:
(A) Maintain all wetland habitat within the bank in optimum condition in perpetuity, barring an unforeseen natural catastrophe that precludes the viability of wetlands.
(B) Establish a trust or bond in favor of the department that provides sufficient funds to ensure administration, protection, operation, and maintenance in perpetuity of the wetland habitat acreage and values at the mitigation bank site if the operator defaults in performing the duties required pursuant to subparagraph (A).
(4) In the case of privately owned bank sites, identification of the circumstances that would constitute a major breach of the agreement and that would result in either the replacement of the operator, or the passing of title from the owner to the state, or both, including identification of procedures for adequate notice and opportunity for the operator to be heard and to correct any breach.
(Added by Stats. 1993, Ch. 1254, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 1994.)