Current through February 24, 2025
(1) SPECIFICATIONS
REQUIRED. By December 31, 2000, every county drainage board shall adopt
complete specifications for each drainage district under that board's
jurisdiction. The department shall approve the specifications before the county
drainage board adopts them. The specifications shall include all of the
following:
(a) A map which clearly and
accurately shows all of the following:
1. The
boundaries of the drainage district, as last confirmed by the circuit court or
as last revised by the county drainage board under ss.
88.77 to
88.80,
Stats.
Note: If the existing boundary of a drainage district is
not clearly documented by a circuit court order, or by a county drainage board
order under ss.
88.77 to
88.80,
Stats., the county drainage board should clarify that boundary by appropriate
procedures under ss.
88.77 to
88.80,
Stats. See s.
ATCP 48.21(1).
2. The intended alignment and extent of every
district drain. If private drains are connected to district drains, the map
shall clearly identify which drains, or portions of drains, are district
drains.
3. The intended location
and width of every district corridor required under s.
ATCP 48.24.
(b) The intended cross-section of every
district drain. Each vertical section in the cross-section of a district ditch
shall include all of the following elements:
1. The intended top and bottom width of the
ditch.
2. The intended depth of the
ditch.
3. The intended side slope
angle of the ditch.
4. Any drainage
structures intersected by that vertical section.
Note: The vertical sections comprising the cross-section of
a district drain should normally be taken at intervals of not more than 1/3
mile along the entire length of the drain, and at points where structures or
changes in drain slope occur.
(c) The grade profile of every district
drain. The grade profile of a district ditch shall include all of the following
elements:
1. The intended grade elevations of
the top and bottom of the ditch.
2.
The estimated water surface elevations in the ditch at base flow. The county
drainage board shall use a method described in ch. ATCP 48 Appendix A, or
another method approved by the department, to estimate water surface elevations
at base flow.
3. The peak water
surface elevations in the ditch in the event of a 10-year 24-hour storm event.
The county drainage board shall use the method described in ch. ATCP 48
Appendix A, or another method approved by the department, to estimate peak
water surface elevations in the event of a 10-year 24 hour storm event.
Note: The formally established "grade profile" effectively
determines drainage access and the depth of drainage provided to landowners.
When a county drainage board documents the "grade profile" of a district drain,
the county drainage board may also wish to determine the elevations of known
points at which private drains empty into that district drain.
(2) NOTICE
TO LANDOWNERS; OPPORTUNITY TO OBJECT. Before a county drainage board applies to
the department for approval of proposed drainage district specifications
required under sub. (1), the county drainage board shall do all of the
following:
(a) Mail or deliver, to every
known landowner in the drainage district, written notice of the proposed
specifications. The notice shall include the proposed specifications or shall
explain how the landowner may obtain them. The notice shall also include an
announcement of the meeting required under par. (c), including the date, time
and place of the meeting.
(b)
Publish a class 2 notice, under ch. 985, Stats., of the meeting under par. (c).
The notice shall explain the purpose of the meeting, and shall include the
meeting date, time and place.
(c)
Hold a public meeting to explain and discuss the proposed specifications. The
county drainage board shall make the proposed specifications available for
public inspection at the meeting.
(d) Give landowners at least 30 days after
the public meeting to file, with the county drainage board, written objections
to the proposed specifications.
(3) DEPARTMENT APPROVAL.
(a) To obtain the department's approval under
sub. (1), a county drainage board shall file all of the following with the
department:
1. The drainage district
specifications for which the county drainage board seeks approval.
2. A description of how the county drainage
board established the specifications.
3. Documentation showing that the county
drainage board has complied with sub. (2).
4. Notice of every landowner objection filed
under sub. (2) (d).
5. The county
drainage board's position on every unresolved objection under sub. (2)
(d).
6. Other relevant information
required by the department.
(b) Within 90 days after a county drainage
board files a complete application under par. (a), the department shall approve
or disapprove the specifications proposed by the county drainage board. The
department may, for good cause, extend the approval deadline to a date
specified by the department.
Note: The department will consult with the department of
natural resources before approving drainage district specifications proposed by
the county drainage board. Among other things, the department will ask the
department of natural resources to identify which, if any, drains in the
district have a navigable stream history.
(4) FILING APPROVED SPECIFICATIONS. Within 30
days after the county drainage board adopts drainage district specifications
under this section, the county drainage board shall file the specifications
with the department, the county zoning administrator and the county register of
deeds. Specifications are not formally established until they are approved,
adopted and filed.
Note: A landowner may challenge formally established drain
specifications that violate this chapter or ch. 88, Stats., even if the
department has approved those specifications. (In some cases, the department
may not be aware of a violation when it approves the specifications.)
(5) DESIGNATING DISTRICT DRAINS. A
county drainage board may not, over the objection of any landowner who owns or
holds an easement to the land on which a drain is located, designate that drain
as a district drain under sub. (1) (a) 2. unless the drainage board does at
least one of the following:
(a) Documents
that a circuit court has, by order, designated that drain as a district
drain.
(b) Documents that the drain
has, historically, been operated and maintained as a district drain.
(c) Complies with s.
ATCP 48.21(2).
Note: A drain is not necessarily a "district drain" merely
because it is located on land within a drainage district, or merely because it
provides drainage for more than one landowner. In some cases, lands within a
drainage district are drained by private drains that empty into district
drains. Private drains are not operated or maintained by the county drainage
board; nor is there any district corridor surrounding a private drain.
(6) DRAIN
CROSS-SECTION, GRADE PROFILE AND ALIGNMENT.
(a) Except as provided in par. (b) or (c),
the county drainage board shall adopt under sub. (1) the cross-sections, grade
profiles and alignments last confirmed by the circuit court. If a county
drainage board is unable to locate court specifications for a drain
cross-section, grade profile or alignment, the drainage board may reconstruct
those specifications based on physical evidence of historical conditions in the
drainage district.
Note: For example, a county drainage board may be able to
document a historical grade profile by physical evidence including soil
conditions and invert elevations of historical structures along the alignment
of the district drain.
(b)
A cross-section, grade profile or alignment adopted under sub. (1) shall
incorporate changes which the county drainage board, acting within its
statutory authority, approved prior to September 1, 1999, except that a grade
profile adopted under sub. (1) may not incorporate a change which the drainage
board purported to approve prior to September 1, 1999, over the unresolved
objection of a landowner whose access to drainage was affected by that change.
A grade profile change is deemed to affect a landowner's access to drainage if
it impedes gravity flow of water from his or her land, through a real or
assumed drain, to any real or assumed outlet at the formally established
cross-section and grade profile of the district drain.
(c) A county drainage board may proceed under
s.
ATCP 48.21 to change or clarify the cross-section, grade
profile or alignment of a district drain.
