Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the health of aquatic resources. When Europeans colonized this continent,
North America held approximately 221 million acres of wetlands. Today,
most of those wetlands are gone. At least 22 states have lost 50% or more of
their original acreage of wetlands, and 10 states have lost about 70% of their
wetlands.
The Clean Water Act sections dealing with wetlands have become
extremely controversial. Wetlands are among our nation's most fragile eco-
systems and play a valuable role in maintaining regional ecology and pre-
venting flooding, while serving as home to numerous species of insects,
birds, and animals; however, wetlands also represent significant potential
monetary value in the eye of private landowners and developers. Herein
lies the major problem. Many property owners feel they are being unfairly
penalized by a Draconian regulation that restricts their right to develop their
own property.
Alternative methods that do not involve destroying the wetlands do exist.
These methods include wetlands mitigation and mitigation banking. Since
1972, when the Clean Water Act was passed, permits from the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers are required to work in wetland areas. To obtain these
permits, builders must agree to restore, enhance, or create an equal num-
ber of wetland acres (generally in the same watershed) as those damaged or
destroyed in the construction project.
Landowners are given the opportunity to balance the adverse affects by
replacing environmental values that are lost. This concept is known as
wet-
lands mitigation
.
Mitigation banking
allows developers or public bodies that
seek to build on wetlands to make payments to a “bank” for use in the
enhancement of other wetlands at a designated location. The development
entity purchases “credit” in the bank and transfers full mitigation respon-
sibility to an agency or environmental organization that runs the bank.
Environmental professionals design, construct, and maintain a specific nat-
ural area using these funds.
The history of the Clean Water Act is much like that of the environmental
movement itself. Once widely supported and buoyed by its initial success,
the Clean Water Act has encountered increasingly difficult problems, such
as polluted stormwater runoff and non-point-source pollution, as well as
unforeseen legalistic challenges, such as debate regarding wetlands and
property rights.
Unfortunately, the Clean Water Act has achieved only part of its goal. At
least one-third of the U.S. rivers, one-half of the U.S. estuaries, and more than
one-half of the lakes are still not safe for such uses as swimming or fishing.
At least 31 states have reported toxins in fish exceeding the action levels set
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Every pollutant cited in an USEPA
study on chemicals in fish showed up in at least one location. Water quality
is seen as deteriorated and viewed as the cause of the decreasing number of
shellfish in the waters.
