Been there and done that! In my neck of the woods it's the same. After being told no to getting a permit to dig a small pond I realized nobody in those organizations will make a decision. To say yes means they except responsibility for what you do. So they look at is what's on paper. They have a list requirements that must be met. They simply go down the list and if every answer is correct you have the permit. You have one thing that dose not fit, your done. This is why they it seems they don't know what their doing and don't even come out and look at your project.
Here's what I did. I spent a year inviting DNR biologists out to see my land and talk about it. Not to tell them what I was going to do, but ask them whether it would be good to have some open water along the wetlands. They said yes it would be good to have some open water, but they said digging a hole may drain the wetlands. So I invited the land conservation people to come out and look at the soils to see if it could drain the wetlands. They said its all clay, and at the water table so there's no way it could drain the wetlands. Of course I got all this in writing. Then I went to the Private lands biologist who plans wetland restorations on private properties. I gave her copies of what the others had said. She took the information to Corps of Engineers and got approval!
Since then I bought a few acres of farm land next to my wetlands and asked to do a "wetlands restoration". I got all the experts to come out and look at it. They took pictures and and discussed building a berm after digging out tile lines. The Private lands biologist took the lead on the project. The Corps was concerned with backing up water onto other properties and flooding homes. So we had the area surveyed to show the top of the berm would be a foot below any surrounding land, so the berm could be underwater and no other properties would be flooded. This removed the liabilities they were concerned with. See the pattern? Find out what does not fit on paper and prove it's not an issue or change it.
Ironically after being told I could not touch my land, I received an award for my dedication to improving the water shed! I found out the sane people who said no entered my name for the award.
Never give up!
