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A2 UP FRONT
Saturday 16 June 2018

Wetlands

Continued from Front said. “That’s how you save
the economy a billion dol-
Banks like this sell “wetlands lars.”
mitigation credits” to de- The EPA said the pro-
velopers for up to $300,000 posal now faces months
apiece, offsetting the de- of reviews before being
struction of marshes by released for public com-
construction projects else- ment, but experts in mitiga-
where. It’s a billion-dollar in- tion are already alarmed.
dustry that has slowed the “It would destroy wetland
loss of U.S. wetlands, half of mitigation banking at the
which are already gone. federal level,” said Royal
This uniquely American mix Gardner, a professor at
of conservation and capi- Florida’s Stetson University
talism has been supported College of Law.
by every president since The Associated Press is the
George H.W. Bush pledged first outlet to comprehen-
a goal of “no net loss” of sively report on the po-
wetlands, growing a mar- tential harm this proposal
ket for mitigation credits could bring to the billion-
from about 40 banks in the dollar wetlands mitigation
early 1990s to nearly 1,500 banking industry. An emergent marsh reflects the sky at the Panther Island Mitigation Bank, Thursday, June 7, 2018,
today. Investors include The EPA did not specifically near Naples, Fla.
Chevron and Wall Street address AP questions about Associated Press
firms, working alongside the how redefining waterways was lost or lacked plans to have taken root and are fill- would limit Clean Water
Audubon Society and oth- could affect it. maintain them. ing in. We are showing that Act protections for non-
er environmental groups. Wetlands are protected The Corps and EPA re- it can be done.” navigable waterways to
Now the market is at risk. under the Clean Water Act vamped the system in 2008, The country is still losing wet- those that remain covered
Administrator Scott Pruitt’s because they are vital to requiring developers to col- lands. There is no national- by water year-round and
Environmental Protection the nation’s water qual- laborate with conservation level data that shows how connected to navigable
Agency has completed a ity. Their dense vegetation experts, and to get the sci- close mitigation banks are rivers, lakes or streams. This
proposal for implementing helps filter out toxins as wa- ence right before selling to achieving the “no net could remove many waters
President Donald Trump’s ter flows through. Wetlands any credits. Since then, the loss” goal. from federal oversight, and
executive order to replace provide key fish and bird market has seen its biggest But Corps permit data hit mitigation banking hard,
the Waters of the United habitat, and protect coast- growth, with innovative show that from 2002-2015, experts say.
States rule, or WOTUS, with al land from hurricanes. projects proving to be both when the agency allowed Protecting fewer wetlands
a much more limited defini- Mitigation banks are not a profitable and ecologically about 350 square miles and streams would mean
tion of what constitutes a panacea, but they are the sustainable. (906 square kilometers) of fewer impacts to these re-
protected federal water- government’s preferred Panther Island was de- wetlands to be filled, de- sources will be regulated,
way. method of protecting wet- signed with the help of velopers were required to and less mitigation required
The current definition is an lands from damage from Audubon, which manages purchase about 800 square to compensate for them,
overreach that claims fed- development, a prefer- the neighboring Corkscrew miles (2,070 square kilom- said Jessica Wilkinson, a
eral jurisdiction over “dry ence that has fueled the Swamp Sanctuary, and the eters) of compensatory senior policy adviser at
creek beds” and “prairie market for mitigation cred- society will continue man- mitigation credits, mostly The Nature Conservancy,
puddles” that are better its. The system began dec- aging the land after all the from banks. which sponsors 13 wet-
regulated by the states, ades ago under the U.S. credits have been sold. The Obama administra- land and stream mitigation
Pruitt told a group of farm- Army Corps of Engineers, “The devil’s in the de- tion sought to include even banks in five states.
ers and businesspeople in but it initially wasn’t well tails with these mitigation more wetlands as protect- “That’s not good for trying
Lincoln, Nebraska, Thurs- designed, and the market banks and their offsetting ed waterways under the to achieve the objectives
day night. failed to take off. impacts. If you’re not do- WOTUS rule, and investors of the Clean Water Act in
“We’re going to say what That began to change af- ing it in a way that offsets responded positively, be- general if we’re no longer
it is, but we’re also going to ter 2001, when the National the natural water storage cause sustained govern- protecting these waters,”
say what it isn’t. We’re pro- Research Council identified losses, then you’re passing ment support reduced the Gardner said.
posing that prairie puddles a chief problem: The Corps the buck to future genera- market’s risk. “If the Trump administration
in North Dakota are not was letting developers who tions,” sanctuary director Trump’s order directs the goes forward with a defini-
waters of the United States lacked the necessary ex- Jason Lauritsen said. EPA and Corps to consider tion of WOTUS that severely
and we’re proposing that pertise design and build the “What you see now is this adopting the late Supreme restricts what waters are
ground water is not water restoration projects. Some beautiful landscape of di- Court Justice Antonin Scal- protected, then their mar-
of the United States,” Pruitt failed to replace what verse native species that ia’s 2006 definition, which ket evaporates.”q