Key Agencies Agree to Curb Wetlands Loss

Two federal agencies have agreed to curtail the loss of wetlands through a unified policy on development, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday.

The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers share federal oversight responsibility for wetlands, but their rules have not always jibed.

“We have had over the years some differences in policy reflected in different definitions, in different approaches to consideration of a proposal to develop a wetland or alter a wetland resource,” William K. Reilly told reporters.

Reilly said previous policies “have confused the public and perhaps contributed to less than a stellar performance in wetlands conservation.”

He made the announcement after addressing an EPA conference. The agreement had been signed Wednesday.

Under the agreement, wetlands development proposals will be assessed first in terms of whether alternatives exist, Reilly said. After that question has been resolved, the agreement calls for the two agencies to address questions of compensation and how to carry out development in the least destructive ways.

Much wetlands decision-making is in the hands of state and local governments. The principal federal power is the Corps, which grants permits for putting fill in waterways and wetlands. The EPA has certain veto powers over the process.

About 95 million acres of swamps, marshes and other wetlands exist in the Lower 48 states, with more than 200 million acres in Alaska, said Cliff Rader of the EPA’s wetlands protection office in Washington.

Reilly said 300,000 to 500,000 acres of wetlands are lost each year in the United States because of drainage, pollution and development.

Wetlands, once thought to be breeding grounds of disease, are considered important to water purification and storage, habitat for wildlife, including many endangered species, and in the productivity of marine life, including commercially important species.