For the purposes of this chapter:

(1) “Commissioner” means the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection;

(2) “Municipality” means any town listed in subsection (a) of § 22a-94, the city of Groton, the borough of Stonington, the borough of Groton Long Point, the borough of Fenwick and the borough of Woodmont, but shall not include any special district;

(3) “Coastal area” means those lands described in subsection (a) of § 22a-94;

(4) “Coastal boundary” means the boundary described in subsection (b) of § 22a-94;

(5) “Coastal waters” means those waters of Long Island Sound and its harbors, embayments, tidal rivers, streams and creeks, which contain a salinity concentration of at least five hundred parts per million under the low flow stream conditions as established by the commissioner;

(6) “Public beach” means that portion of the shoreline held in public fee ownership by the state or that portion of the shoreline below the mean high tide elevation that is held in public trust by the state;

(7) “Coastal resources” means the coastal waters of the state, their natural resources, related marine and wildlife habitat and adjacent shorelands, both developed and undeveloped, that together form an integrated terrestrial and estuarine ecosystem; coastal resources include the following: (A) “Coastal bluffs and escarpments” means naturally eroding shorelands marked by dynamic escarpments or sea cliffs which have slope angles that constitute an intricate adjustment between erosion, substrate, drainage and degree of plant cover; (B) “rocky shorefronts” means shorefront composed of bedrock, boulders and cobbles that are highly erosion-resistant and are an insignificant source of sediments for other coastal landforms; (C) “beaches and dunes” means beach systems including barrier beach spits and tombolos, barrier beaches, pocket beaches, land contact beaches and related dunes and sandflats; (D) “intertidal flats” means very gently sloping or flat areas located between high and low tides composed of muddy, silty and fine sandy sediments and generally devoid of vegetation; (E) “tidal wetlands” means “wetland” as defined by § 22a-29; (F) “freshwater wetlands and watercourses” means “wetlands” and “watercourses” as defined by § 22a-38; (G) “estuarine embayments” means a protected coastal body of water with an open connection to the sea in which saline sea water is measurably diluted by fresh water including tidal rivers, bays, lagoons and coves; (H) “coastal hazard areas” means those land areas inundated during coastal storm events or subject to erosion induced by such events, including flood hazard areas as defined and determined by the National Flood Insurance Act, as amended (USC 42 Section 4101, P.L. 93-234) and all erosion hazard areas as determined by the commissioner; (I) “developed shorefront” means those harbor areas which have been highly engineered and developed resulting in the functional impairment or substantial alteration of their natural physiographic features or systems; (J) “island” means land surrounded on all sides by water; (K) “nearshore waters” means the area comprised of those waters and their substrates lying between mean high water and a depth approximated by the ten meter contour; (L) “offshore waters” means the area comprised of those waters and their substrates lying seaward of a depth approximated by the ten meter contour; (M) “shorelands” means those land areas within the coastal boundary exclusive of coastal hazard areas, which are not subject to dynamic coastal processes and which are comprised of typical upland features such as bedrock hills, till hills and drumlins; (N) “shellfish concentration areas” means actual, potential or historic areas in coastal waters, in which one or more species of shellfish aggregate;

(8) “Zoning commission” means the municipal zoning commission established under § 8-1 or by any special act or the combined planning and zoning commission established under § 8-4a;

(9) “Planning commission” means the municipal planning commission established under § 8-19 or by any special act or the combined planning and zoning commission established under § 8-4a;

(10) “Municipal coastal plans” means the plans listed in subsections (b) and (d) of § 22a-101;

(11) “Municipal coastal regulations” means the regulations and ordinances listed in subsection (b) of § 22a-101;

(12) “Federal Coastal Zone Management Act” and “federal act” means the U.S. Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended;

(13) “Coastal site plans” means the site plans, applications and project referrals listed in § 22a-105;

(14) “Facilities and resources which are in the national interest” means: (A) Adequate protection of tidal wetlands and related estuarine resources; (B) restoration and enhancement of Connecticut’s shellfish industry; (C) restoration, preservation and enhancement of the state’s recreational and commercial fisheries, including anadromous species; (D) water pollution control measures and facilities consistent with the requirements of the federal Clean Water Act, as amended; (E) air pollution control measures and facilities consistent with the requirements of the federal Clean Air Act, as amended; (F) continued operations of existing federally-funded dredged and maintained navigation channels and basins; (G) energy facilities serving state-wide and interstate markets, including electric generating facilities and facilities for storage, receiving or processing petroleum products and other fuels; (H) improvements to the existing interstate rail, highway and water-borne transportation system; (I) provision of adequate state or federally-owned marine-related recreational facilities, including natural areas and wildlife sanctuaries; and (J) essential maintenance and improvement of existing water-dependent military, navigational, resource management and research facilities;

(15) “Adverse impacts on coastal resources” include but are not limited to: (A) Degrading water quality through the significant introduction into either coastal waters or groundwater supplies of suspended solids, nutrients, toxics, heavy metals or pathogens, or through the significant alteration of temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen or salinity; (B) degrading existing circulation patterns of coastal waters through the significant alteration of patterns of tidal exchange or flushing rates, freshwater input, or existing basin characteristics and channel contours; (C) degrading natural erosion patterns through the significant alteration of littoral transport of sediments in terms of deposition or source reduction; (D) degrading natural or existing drainage patterns through the significant alteration of groundwater flow and recharge and volume of runoff; (E) increasing the hazard of coastal flooding through significant alteration of shoreline configurations or bathymetry, particularly within high velocity flood zones; (F) degrading visual quality through significant alteration of the natural features of vistas and view points; (G) degrading or destroying essential wildlife, finfish or shellfish habitat through significant alteration of the composition, migration patterns, distribution, breeding or other population characteristics of the natural species or significant alteration of the natural components of the habitat; and (H) degrading tidal wetlands, beaches and dunes, rocky shorefronts, and bluffs and escarpments through significant alteration of their natural characteristics or function;

(16) “Water-dependent uses” means those uses and facilities which require direct access to, or location in, marine or tidal waters and which therefore cannot be located inland, including but not limited to: Marinas, recreational and commercial fishing and boating facilities, finfish and shellfish processing plants, waterfront dock and port facilities, shipyards and boat building facilities, water-based recreational uses, navigation aides, basins and channels, industrial uses dependent upon water-borne transportation or requiring large volumes of cooling or process water which cannot reasonably be located or operated at an inland site and uses which provide general public access to marine or tidal waters;

(17) “Adverse impacts on future water-dependent development opportunities” and “adverse impacts on future water-dependent development activities” include but are not limited to (A) locating a non-water-dependent use at a site that (i) is physically suited for a water-dependent use for which there is a reasonable demand or (ii) has been identified for a water-dependent use in the plan of development of the municipality or the zoning regulations; (B) replacement of a water-dependent use with a non-water-dependent use, and (C) siting of a non-water-dependent use which would substantially reduce or inhibit existing public access to marine or tidal waters;

(18) “Zoning board of appeals” means the municipal zoning board of appeals established pursuant to § 8-5 or any special act; and

(19) “Rise in sea level” means the most recent sea level change scenario updated pursuant to subsection (b) of § 25-68o.