Struggle
over Clean Water Act persists
Biloxi
Sun Herald (
December 18, 2003
)
Federal
plans to remove protection of millions of acres of wetlands under a
redefinition of the Clean Water Act fell by the wayside Tuesday.
The
proposed change that would have opened as many as 20 million acres of
"isolated" wetlands to development was vigorously opposed by
a broad collection of environmentalists, conservationists and hunters.
"Today
we are reaffirming and bolstering protections for wetlands, which are
vital for water quality, the health of our streams and wildlife
habitat," said recently installed Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Mike Leavitt.
Leavitt
credited President Bush with the push to leave the act as it is.
But
a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling filed the same day in
New Orleans
suggests pressure will continue, at least in the courts, against the
broad scope of the Clean Water Act.
The
court ruled that "the
United States
may not simply impose regulations over puddles, sewers, roadside
ditches and the like."
And
so while the EPA decision to back away from tinkering with the Clean
Water Act upset one local attorney who represents the interests of
several developers, the 5th Circuit case returned Dean Wilson's
optimism.
"This
case, I think, opens the door to developers being able to develop
their property in
South Mississippi
more than they were before," said
Wilson
.
The
U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that wetlands unconnected to running
waterways could not be regulated under the Clean Water Act. Inland,
unconnected wetlands are often protected as habitat for migrating
waterfowl.
After
months of discussion, the EPA announced Tuesday it will continue its
current commitment of enforcing a policy of "no net loss" of
wetlands.
The
strongest resistance to the proposal that would have taken
"isolated" wetlands out of the scope of the Clean Water Act
came from traditionally conservative sporting groups like Ducks
Unlimited with close connections to the Bush White House.
Ducks
Unlimited is estimated to have generated 20,000 of the 133,000 public
comments submitted to the EPA from its membership opposing the change,
said Chad Manlove, a regional biologist with Ducks Unlimited based in
Jackson
.
"We're
just sort of pinching each other right now," Manlove said.
"I think it's a great win for sportsmen across the South, because
a lot of those ducks we hunt come from these areas that would have
been affected."
But
the resistance of developers, and the lawyers who represent them, is
expected to continue.
Wilson
holds that land development issues should be decided at the state
level, not dictated from
Washington
.
As
a member of the Biloxi Housing Authority, he said federal regulations
make it more costly to build new housing.
"It
takes longer to get it developed and obviously your costs go up,"
Wilson
said. "Developers need this."
But
the Coast building boom of the '90s left many who set public policy
with a sour taste in their mouths for unrestrained growth.
"There's
so much money involved, it's hard," said Mark LaSalle, a wetlands
expert with
Mississippi
State
University
's Coast office. "There's still a lot in the development
community that would still try to get their way. They're still trying
to tweak the system."
But
as attitudes about the potential for the economic impact of ecotourism
warm up, more conservationist policies will follow, LaSalle said.
A
recent report by The Nature Conservancy about the
Pascagoula
River
system in Jackson and George counties spelled out in plain language
the financial contribution that nature-based tourism holds.
"Politicians
have picked up on that," LaSalle said.
Wetlands
provide many direct and indirect benefits, including cleaning polluted
run-off and moving fresh water into aquifers, and providing natural
flood control and habitat for numerous fish and wildlife species,
including most of the staple species harvested by the area's seafood
industry.
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