There is hereby established a public body corporate and politic having a distinct legal existence separate from the state and not constituting a department or agency of the state government to be known as the Southeast Watershed Alliance, also known as the Alliance. The Alliance shall include those municipalities in New Hampshire whose boundaries include a portion of the coastal watershed and who have agreed to participate the Alliance. The public purpose of the Alliance is:

1. I. To engage in improved municipal, intermunicipal, and regional planning, studies, public education, and implementation measures, including potential investments, relative to water quality, water supply, wastewater and stormwater management, septic systems and septage, and land use, for the purpose of improving and protecting the water quality and natural hydrology of the state's coastal water resources and associated waters, and to more effectively address on a watershed basis the challenges of meeting state and federal regulations, including waste load limits and allocations. Such planning and investments may include, but are not limited to:

   1. (a) Establishing intermunicipal stormwater utilities and any associated facilities.
   2. (b) Establishing intermunicipal or regional wastewater districts and facilities.
   3. (c) Establishing and coordinating common municipal regulations for nutrient reduction and water quality protection, such as stormwater, wetlands, and buffer regulations.
   4. (d) Developing and implementing, in coordination with the department, innovative means to achieve compliance with nutrient and other pollutant reductions, such as a nutrients offset or trading program.
   5. (e) Addressing water supply and water conservation measures.
2. II. To foster improved municipal and intermunicipal land use planning and regulation, in coordination with the applicable regional planning commissions, such as to encourage low impact development and innovative zoning and land use management approaches, and to advance the state's economic growth, resource protection, and planning policy.

Source. 2004, 258:1. 2009, 220:1, eff. July 15, 2009.