Wetlands garnered here and vanishing there 

By MINDY POEHL | Central Texas Edition

Left to right: Tyler Pierce, 6th grade; Nathan Moss, 7th grade; Nora Schell, program coordinator; Patrick Milam, 5th grade; and CJ White, 5th grade, all (youth) from China Spring Middle School, explore the Lake Waco Wetlands Project, which is going on its second year and is already thriving with many animal species.     -- Photo by Ty Stepp

Sept. 29, 2005 - The Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) released a report last week, that showed Texas as one of the 10 worst states in the United States in terms of wetland losses. In order, the 10 worst states are Nebraska, North Dakota, Florida, Illinois, Texas, Georgia, South Dakota, Colorado, Wisconsin and Indiana.

"We depend on wetlands to preserve endangered species, the environment, migratory birds and to help with flood control," said Eric Schaeffer, EIP director. 

EIP, a Washington D.C.-based organization, believes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is exploiting the 2004 Supreme Court decision that narrowed the Clean Water Act protections, opening up 11,000 acres of wetlands in a total of 15 states. This includes remote areas that provide habitat for migratory birds and endangered species.

"The Supreme Court voted to shrink the Clean Water Act and opened thousands of acres of wetlands to commercial development," Schaeffer said. "The wetlands are no longer protected by the Clean Water Act. You don't need a permit from the Army Corps to fill in the wetlands."

EIP found that a wide range of commercial interests will benefit from recent determinations by the Corps' wetlands-related decisions, including a Wal-Mart shopping center in Texas.

The fact that the Corps has determined a wetland is exempt from the Clean Water Act does not necessarily mean that the acreage in question will be destroyed. 

"As bad as the Supreme Court decision was, the Army Corps has made it worse by going further than the opinion required," stated Schaeffer.

Schaeffer said EIP is finding that it is not the wetlands on the coast that are being affected; it is mostly the interior wetlands.

"We're finding a bias against wetland preservation," said Schaeffer.

The EIP report included that the Corps found that the affected wetlands in North Dakota were exempt in 69 of the 77 projects it has reviewed since March 30, 1977. Wetlands were determined to be exempt in 54 out of 125 cases reviewed in South Dakota since April 27, 2004. Both states are home to prairie potholes and other lands that provide critical habitat for waterfowl that migrate between Canada and southern states.

"If this trend continues, birds flying over the Dakota's will have to carry their own water with them," Schaeffer said. "The Corps is writing off cases that are no longer subject to the Clean Water Act. In 29 cases in Galveston, the Corps wrote 'unknown' in the size of the areas they were dealing with. They did not know the size of the wetlands, and the Galveston projects are very big."

Texas has 642 - 887 acres of wetlands exempted by the Corps since 2004, the EIP report noted.

"The Corps is bound by the Supreme Court ruling. We're trying to say that these court decisions do matter," explained Schaeffer. "If the wetland is not attached to a navigable water, it seems to have been written off. Congress can fill the gap and fix this."

Candice Walters, public affairs specialist with the Army Corps of Engineers responded to the EIP report by saying, "We have made no determination of the amount of land affected by the Supreme Court ruling. We are busy doing our job of protecting land for which we do have jurisdictional responsibilities."