The Commissioner shall, consistent with applicable requirements of Sections 4-166 to 185 of the General Statutes, as amended, consider the following in making his final decision on a permit application:

a. All evidence offered at any public hearing;

b. Any reports from other commissions and/or federal or state agencies, including the Soil and Water Conservation District and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection;

c. Additional requested information;

d. All relevant facts and circumstances, including but not limited to the following:

1. (i) The environmental impact of the proposed action, including the effects of the inland wetland's and water course's natural capacity to support desirable biological life, to prevent flooding, to supply water, to control sediment, to facilitate drainage, and to promote public health and safety.

   1. (ii) The alternatives to the proposed action including a consideration of alternatives which might enhance environmental quality or have a less detrimental effect, and which could feasibly attain the basic objectives of the activity. This should include but is not limited to the alternative of taking no action, or postponing action pending further study; the alternative of requiring actions of different nature which would provide similar benefits with different environmental impacts, such as using a different location for the activity.
   2. (iii) The relationship between the short-term uses of the environment and the maintenance and enhancement of long-term productivity, including consideration of the extent to which the proposed activity involves trade-offs between short-term environmental gains at the expense of long-term losses, or vice versa, and consideration of the extent to which the proposed action forecloses future options.
   3. (iv) Irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources which would be involved in the proposed activity. This requires recognition that the inland wetlands and water courses of the State of Connecticut are an indispensable and irreplaceable but fragile natural resource, and that these areas may be irreversibly destroyed by deposition, filling, and removal of material, by the diversion or obstruction of waterflow, and by the erection of structures and other uses.

2. (v) The character and degree of injury to, or interference with, safety, health, or the reasonable use of property which would be caused or threatened. This includes recognition of potential damage from erosion, turbidity, or siltation, loss of fish and other beneficial aquatic organisms, wildlife and vegetation; the dangers of flooding and pollution; and destruction of the economic, aesthetic, recreational and other public and private uses and values of wetlands and water courses.

   1. (vi) The suitability of such action to the area for which it is proposed. This requires the agency to balance the need for the economic growth of the state and the use of its land, with the need to protect its environment and ecology for the people of the state and the benefit of generations yet unborn.

      e. Measures which would mitigate the impact of the proposed activity and may be imposed as conditions of the permit. Such measures include the availability of further technical improvements or safeguards which could feasibly be added to the plan or action to avoid the reduction of the wetland's or water course's natural capacity to support desirable biological life, prevent flooding, supply water, control sedimentation and/or prevent erosion, assimilate wastes, facilitate drainage, and provide recreation and open space.

(Effective February 25, 1974)