Bush administration backtracking on policy of 'no net loss" of wetlands
December 26, 2002: In response to criticism over the government's failure to halt the massive loss of wetlands, the Bush administration outlined a 17-point plan "clarifying" federal guidelines on replacing wetlands lost or damaged by development.
Tens of thousands of wetlands are destroyed each year, contributing to flooding, pollution runoff into streams and rivers, and loss of important habitat for fish and wildlife. The Clean Water Act prohibits developers from filling in wetlands unless the Army Corps of Engineers grants a permit. In those cases, the permit holder must either restore the wetlands or create a replacement as compensation. Last year, two separate reports by the National Academy of Sciences and the General Accounting Office concluded that wetlands replacement projects are failures and are not well tracked by federal agencies.
The new Bush plan to ensure the goal of "no net loss" of the nation's wetlands -- set by the first President Bush in 1989 -- emphasizes the ecological quality of the wetlands replaced over quantity. In other words, the administration's approach will focus on how and where developers must create new wetlands to compensate for those destroyed by highways, subdivisions or other construction projects rather instead of achieving acre-for-acre replacement. Bush officials said this approach to wetlands replacement could result in a numerical loss, but an ecological gain.
Environmentalists warned that the administration's new strategy would do little to stem the loss of valuable wetlands, particularly since 80 percent of wetlands restoration or mitigation projects are failures.
"The notion that the developers should create better wetlands rather than replace all of the ones they destroy is beside the point," said NRDC attorney Daniel Rosenberg. "The Bush administration should be focusing on how to better prevent the loss of our remaining wetlands."
© 2009 Natural Resources Defense Council
