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Mayville Trustee Expresses Support For New Wetlands Regulations

MAYVILLE – Village Trustee Bill Ward is going on record expressing his support for the proposed wetlands regulations by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

In September, the Mayville Village Board sent a letter opposing the wetlands designation. Ward was not at that meeting.

At the October meeting, Ward expressed his disappointment with the village board’s position and read from a prepared statement.

His statement is as follows:

“I wholeheartedly approve of the DEC recommendation. Wetlands are so valuable that they need the highest level of protection. I am fully supportive of the proposed regulations, which I understand are a compromise, rather than the more strict protections that The DEC initially proposed.

“I would echo the position of the former Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy director in his letter to the DEC: ‘Aquatic plant communities that meet the statutory definition of wetlands must be protected, regardless of whether they are in navigable waters or elsewhere. Wetlands in navigable waters are no less valuable than other wetlands and must not be exempted from state wetland regulations. (Wetlands play a vital role) in filtering drinking water, protecting biodiversity and safeguarding our communities from floods and droughts.

“In general, these revisions to the freshwater wetlands regulations present a new vision that I believe will protect the most vulnerable and the most important wetlands. The draft regulations adhere closely to the enacted legal reforms. The mapping reform alone will lead to the permitting protection of over an additional million acres of wetlands in New York.”

“(These regulations) will allow for the protection of vital small wetlands, such as vernal pools. These breeding grounds for rare amphibians and invertebrates are becoming more important as climate change accelerates the extinction crisis.'”

Along with Mayville, Bemus Point, Lakewood, Celoron, Ellicott, Ellery, Busti, and North Harmony, have all passed resolutions opposing the state wetlands designation.

State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, and State Assemblyman Andy Goodell, R-Jamestown, sent a joint letter in June to Sean Mahar, interim state DEC commissioner, expressing their concerns with the way proposed wetlands regulations could affect Chautauqua Lake. They specifically asked that the proposed DEC regulations not designate lakes as wetlands because that designation would be inconsistent with both existing statutory language and decades of precedent.

Also, Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel asked the state to delay the regulations.

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