If your dock is permanent (as in, installed year-round) and you are doing work in the water to reconstruct it you should have obtained a permit from the NH DES Wetlands Bureau. The "grandfather" dates are 1969 for permanent structures and commercial structures and 1978 for single family seasonal structures. If you did not build the illegal structures then there would not be any possibility of getting fined for their existence. You would not however receive a permit to repair them if they do not meet current standards, and if the illegal structures were to come to the attention of DES through any means the state could order that the illegal structures be removed. If any of the modifications do meet current standards then you could apply for a permit to keep those additions after-the-fact.
D. Forst
Shoreland Section Supervisor
NH DES Land Resource Management Programs
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