(a) The Department of Agriculture shall have exclusive authority for granting or denying aquaculture permits, except for matters specifically concerning water discharges from such aquaculture operations into the waters of the state, which shall require approval by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection as provided in § 22a-430. The department shall not consider discharges from aquaculture operations to be industrial discharges and shall treat and administer applications and permits from aquaculture operations as separate and distinct from permits for industrial discharges for the purposes of § 22a-430. Within ninety days of receipt of a sufficient application for a discharge permit for an aquaculture operation under § 22a-430 the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection, or a designee, shall meet with the applicant and the Commissioner of Agriculture, or a designee, to discuss such application.

(b) Aquaculture operations that withdraw less than two hundred fifty thousand gallons per day of water, where such water is not approved for human consumption, and where water so withdrawn is returned to the same source from which it was withdrawn, shall be deemed not to be a diversion as defined in § 22a-367 and shall be exempt from the water diversion permitting requirements of chapter 446i.

(c) Individual structures used for aquaculture as defined in § 22-11c, including, but not limited to, racks, cages or bags, as well as buoys marking such structures, which received a permit under federal Army Corps of Engineers regulations and do not interfere with navigation in designated or customary boating or shipping lanes and channels, shall be placed in leased or designated shellfish areas and shall be exempt from the requirements of sections 22a-359 to 22a-363f, inclusive.

(d) Transport of live aquaculture products from any licensed and approved aquaculture operation or hatchery within the state, and stocking of such products in the waters of the state, where such aquaculture products are species which are indigenous to the state and are approved for stocking by the Department of Agriculture, shall be exempt from the requirements of § 26-57, except that any person engaging in such transport and stocking shall obtain a renewable annual transport permit which shall govern all shipments for a calendar year designated under such permit. Such permit shall be developed and administered by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Aquaculture hatcheries maintained by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection shall be exempt from the provisions of this subsection.

(e) All shellfish aquaculture operations that utilize state-approved microalgal cultured feeds or which do not use any processed cultured feed, and all crustacean and molluscan bivalve growing, hatchery and holding facilities, including, but not limited to, lobster pounds, which are not exempt from requirements to obtain a discharge permit under § 22a-430 or corresponding federal regulations, may operate under a general permit developed by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and shall not be required to obtain individual discharge permits under § 22a-430. On or before September 15, 1999, said Department of Energy and Environmental Protection shall adopt and implement such general permit.