The act maintains the Upper White River Basin Watershed Improvement District, however new language provides the opportunity for counties located within the district to opt out in one of two ways. The county commission can call for a county vote, or at least twenty percent of the property owners living within the county can call for a vote. For any county that opts out of the district, the act allows these counties to rejoin the district at any time pursuant to a vote called for by a ballot initiative or the county commission order.

New language allows counties within the district to designate groundwater depletion areas within certain areas of the county and they may choose to allow or disallow well volume monitoring.

The act changes the standard by which sewage complaints are investigated; the act calls for the complaint to come from an aggrieved party or an adjacent landowner only. The act allows on-site sewage disposal system contractors to qualify for registration by completing training offered by the county provided that training has first been certified by the department.

The act repeals language allowing formation of new watershed districts as well as language that allows well volume monitoring in any county by commission order or petition. The act also repeals language that requires any person performing an analysis of wastewater to first be licensed by the department of natural resources.

MEGAN WORD