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An Assembly committee Tuesday recommended passage of a major revision of laws protecting state lakes, streams and groundwater.

On a party-line vote, the majority Republicans on the Committee on Environment and Forestry approved AB 600, a far-reaching proposal aimed at strengthening the rights of waterfront property owners and developers who want to build on wetlands.

Republicans pushing the bill said current laws and the way they are enforced by the state Department of Natural Resources have infringed unfairly on the freedom of property owners.

Rep. Joel Kitchens, R-Sturgeon Bay, said the bill was well-intentioned and amendments made after a public hearing last month persuaded him to vote for it in committee.

But Kitchens said he wants to see further changes to provisions that would make it easier to dig up and remove soil or rock on a shoreline or in a lake bed before he will vote for it on the Assembly floor.

“The dredging part still has a way to go,” Kitchens said.

Committee Democrats expressed no optimism that the bill could be amended to their liking.