Except as permitted by the Conservation Commission pursuant
to the Act or as provided in this chapter, no person shall commence
to remove, fill, dredge, build upon, degrade, discharge into, or otherwise
alter the following protectable resource areas: any freshwater marshes;
wet meadows; bogs; swamps; vernal pools; banks; reservoirs; lakes;
ponds of any size; rivers; streams; creeks; beaches; dunes; estuaries;
lands under water bodies; lands subject to flooding or inundation
by groundwater or surface water; lands subject to tidal action, coastal
storm flowage, or flooding; and lands abutting any of the aforesaid
resource areas as set out in this section (collectively the "resource
areas protected by this chapter"). Said resource areas and their applicable
buffer zones under the Act, if any, shall be protected whether or
not they border surface waters.
The applicant for a permit shall have the burden of proving
by a preponderance of the credible evidence that the work proposed
in the permit application will not have unacceptable significant or
cumulative effect upon the resource area values protected by this
chapter. Failure to provide adequate evidence to the Commission supporting
this burden shall be sufficient cause for the Commission to deny a
permit or grant a permit with conditions.
A decision of the Commission shall be reviewable in the Superior
Court in accordance with MGL c. 249, § 4.
This chapter is adopted under the Home Rule Amendment of the
Massachusetts Constitution and the home rule statutes, independent
of the Act thereunder.