• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Nearly 36 Million Hectares Of US Wetlands Could Be Stripped Of Federal Protections

September 26, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

A recent Supreme Court ruling has seen calls for clarification after a study found that it could result in nearly all of the nontidal wetlands in the conterminous USA being stripped of federal protections.

Advertisement

The ruling in question was over Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, a case that concerned the scope of the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA). This act brought wetlands within the extent of the “waters of the United States” or WOTUS, which are federally protected in order to restore or maintain their quality.

However, in May 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in the majority that the CWA only covers “wetlands that are ‘indistinguishable’ from [streams, oceans, rivers, and lakes]” such that “the wetland has a continuous surface connection with that water, making it difficult to determine where the ‘water’ ends and the ‘wetland’ begins.”

This new definition, argues Adam Gold – who manages Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds in North Carolina and Virginia for the Environmental Defense Fund – in a new study, is “notably narrower than all previous interpretations” and “ignores robust scientific evidence showing the ecologic importance of wetlands.”

“Additionally, the court’s use of vague and subjective language creates unclear federal jurisdiction requirements for wetlands, and this raises the unresolved question posed by Justice Kavanaugh in his concurring opinion: How wet must a wetland be to have federal protections?”

That’s what Gold sought to find out.

Advertisement

The researcher looked to flood frequency to measure “wetness” and found that if the definition only included geographically isolated wetlands that also aren’t excluded for being too “dry”, then around 6.9 million hectares (17 million acres), or around 19 percent, of nontidal wetland would no longer be federally protected.

At the other end of the spectrum, however, when the definition requires that a wetland must be permanently flooded to be classed as WOTUS, nearly all 36.4 million hectares (90 million acres) of nontidal wetland in the US would now be considered unprotected.

The consequences of this could be significant, “given the importance of wetland ecosystems and their myriad beneficial downstream effects,” writes Gold.

“A loss of federal protection for a wetland would leave state-level protections, which vary greatly across the country, as the main backstop to prevent wetland degradation and loss.”

Advertisement

With this in mind, Gold highlights the need to clarify the details of the definition set out in the Supreme Court ruling and concludes “with the hope that a greater understanding of [its] potential impacts will inform public discussion and response.”

The study is published in Science.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Gillmor Gang: Life Goes On
  2. Generation Alpha: What’s In Store For The World’s Incoming Cohort Of Humans?
  3. Jerusalem Syndrome: The Unusual Psychiatric Condition Affecting Visitors To The “Holy City”
  4. It Takes Three Zebrafish To Make A School, Two Won’t Do

Source Link: Nearly 36 Million Hectares Of US Wetlands Could Be Stripped Of Federal Protections

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Martian Mudstone Has Features That Might Be Biosignatures, New Brain Implant Can Decode Your Internal Monologue, And Much More This Week
  • Crocodiles Weren’t All Blood-Thirsty Killers, Some Evolved To Be Plant-Eating Vegetarians
  • Stratospheric Warming Event May Be Unfolding In The Southern Polar Vortex, Shaking Up Global Weather Systems
  • 15 Years Ago, Bees In Brooklyn Appeared Red After Snacking Where They Shouldn’t
  • Carnian Pluvial Event: It Rained For 2 Million Years — And It Changed Planet Earth Forever
  • There’s Volcanic Unrest At The Campi Flegrei Caldera – Here’s What We Know
  • The “Rumpelstiltskin Effect”: When Just Getting A Diagnosis Is Enough To Start The Healing
  • In 1962, A Boy Found A Radioactive Capsule And Brought It Inside His House — With Tragic Results
  • This Cute Creature Has One Of The Largest Genomes Of Any Mammal, With 114 Chromosomes
  • Little Air And Dramatic Evolutionary Changes Await Future Humans On Mars
  • “Black Hole Stars” Might Solve Unexplained JWST Discovery
  • Pretty In Purple: Why Do Some Otters Have Purple Teeth And Bones? It’s All Down To Their Spiky Diets
  • The World’s Largest Carnivoran Is A 3,600-Kilogram Giant That Weighs More Than Your Car
  • Devastating “Rogue Waves” Finally Have An Explanation
  • Meet The “Masked Seducer”, A Unique Bat With A Never-Before-Seen Courtship Display
  • Alaska’s Salmon River Is Turning Orange – And It’s A Stark Warning
  • Meet The Heaviest Jelly In The Seas, Weighing Over Twice As Much As A Grand Piano
  • For The First Time, We’ve Found Evidence Climate Change Is Attracting Invasive Species To Canadian Arctic
  • What Are Microfiber Cloths, And How Do They Clean So Well?
  • Stowaway Rat That Hopped On A Flight From Miami Was A “Wake-Up Call” For Global Health
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version