Print Article

Email the Editor

Clean Water Bill Fails to Address Wetlands Concerns

NAHB Executive Vice President Jerry Howard charged that the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act of 2003 fails to address wetlands regulatory problems under Sec. 404 of the Clean Water Act. “Rather than furthering the protection of wetlands, the bill will exacerbate existing inefficiencies and tread on the carefully planned state and federal balance envisioned by the Clean Water Act for protecting the nation’s waters.”

What is missing in the Clean Water Act now, said Howard, is an efficient permitting process for development activities in wetlands having a minimal impact on the environment. Waves of regulation, he said, have made the existing Nationwide Permitting Process practically useless.

In effect, the newly proposed legislation would “elevate roadside ditches to the same level as wetlands in the Everglades,” Howard said

“This level of ‘protection’ would be cost-prohibitive and diminish the ability of federal agencies to protect other, more valuable aquatic systems,” he said.

Howard added that Congress intended the Clean Water Act to protect and regulate navigable waters of the United States that can be used for interstate commerce, “not just any vernal pool, prairie pothole or puddle that can navigated by a water molecule.”

 For more information on this legislation, go to Sen. Russell Feingold’s Web site.

go to top