Number: 1985-05
WHEREAS, the survival of numerous species of wildlife, fish, and shellfish depends on healthy, productive wetland ecosystems; and
WHEREAS, wetlands improve water quality by filtering surface runoff before it reaches other water bodies, perform millions of dollars’ worth of waste treatment, reduce effects of floods and storms, and recharge groundwater in aquifers providing public water supplies; and
WHEREAS, approximately 56 percent of our original wetlands in the 48 coterminous states have been destroyed; and
WHEREAS, the Section 404 permit program mandated by the Clean Water Act of 1972 is the principal Federal regulatory program that protects wetlands and plays an essential role in meeting the Act’s goals to restore and maintain this nation’s waters; and
WHEREAS, the Section 404 permit program, as administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1980-1981, was only saving an estimated 50,000 acres per year; and
WHEREAS, vegetated wetlands are currently being destroyed at the rate of 300,000 acres per year; and
WHEREAS, more than 80 percent of the destruction of this nation’s vegetated freshwater wetlands results from agricultural development involving drainage, which is not currently being regulated under Section 404; and
WHEREAS, notwithstanding the settlement in NWF et al. v. Marsh, since 1981 the Department of the Army has implemented numerous regulatory changes that have undermined greatly the wetland protection provided by the Section 404 permit program, including expanded use of nationwide general permits, creation of state program general permits, veto of requests by other Federal agencies for additional permit review, and challenges to state denials of water quality certification for environmentally destructive nationwide general permits; and
WHEREAS, additional regulatory changes that would weaken wetlands protection under Section 404, first proposed on May 12, 1983, are expected to be completed in 1985; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued two reports that indicate a nearly total failure of the Section 404 program to provide protection for bottomland hardwood wetlands in the lower Mississippi River Valley and wetlands in northern New Jersey;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation, in annual meeting assembled March 14-17, 1985, in Arlington, Virginia, strongly urges restructuring the Section 404 program to:
1. Expand the activities regulated under the Section 404 permitting program beyond the discharge of dredged or fill material to include channelization, excavation, drainage, clearing, flooding, and dredging of wetlands and other waters of the United States;
2. Shift responsibility for the Section 404 permitting program from the Department of the Army and Corps of Engineers to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, and/or EPA or a Federal agency with greater concern in wetlands protection and expertise in evaluating impacts on water quality, fisheries and wildlife;
3. Provide for meaningful review and veto of permits by other Federal agencies with responsibilities for water quality, fisheries, or wildlife;
4. Allow the Secretary of the Army to retain authority to veto permits proposed for issuance by another Federal agency in traditionally navigable waters on the basis of navigability concerns; and
5. Provide authority and funding for delegation of the Section 404 permitting program to the states, with effective Federal oversight to assure environmental protection and public participation.