The Environmental Quality Board will hold several public hearings on proposed amendments to Chapter 4410, Environmental Review Program. The proposed rules would amend or add 29 subparts in Chapter 4410. These amendments consist of five topical areas: new mandatory EIS and exemption categories that would apply to certain projects located in the shoreland areas of lake and rivers; amendments to how the rules handle treatment of "cumulative potential effects" in EIS and Alternative Urban Areawide Reviews (AUARs) in response to a 2006 Minnesota Supreme Court decision; amendments to the AUAR process with respect to how specific individual projects are treated or how they affect the review; a new mandatory EIS category for releases of genetically engineered wild rice in response to a legislative directive in the 2007 session; and miscellaneous other amendments to clarify the meaning of certain rule provisions. The hearings will be February 25 and 26, and March 2, 4, and 5, 2009. http://www.comm.media.state.mn.us/bookstore/stateregister//33_29.pdf pp. 1243-52.