Trump's WOTUS: Clear as mud, scientists say

摘要

The Trump administration's stated goal for a rule defining which wetlands and waterways get Clean Water Act protection: Write a simple regulation that landowners can understand. "I believe that any property owner should be able to stand on his or her property and be able to tell whether or not they have a 'water of the U.S.' on their property without having to hire an outside consultant or attorney," acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in mid- January. But scientists who specialize in the study of wetlands and waterways say it's not that simple. "In a lot of cases, I still don't think landowners could stand there and figure it out on their own," said Siobhan Fennessy, a biology professor at Kenyon College. "You're still going to need the industry of consultants we have to come out and offer assistance. I don't think they're going away." The new "waters of the U.S.," or WOTUS, proposal would erase federal protections for the more than 51 percent of wetlands and 18 percent of streams without relatively permanent surface water connections to nearby waterways, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Wetlands — marshes, bogs, swamps and other soggy areas — are protected by law as stormwater buffers, pollution filters and wildlife habitat. Jennifer Tank, a professor who teaches the ecology of streams and rivers at the University of Notre Dame, said the proposal would be the most significant rollback of Clean Water Act protections since the Reagan administration, but that doesn't make it easy to understand.