Chicago Tribune, May 9, 1991
By Terry Atlas
Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON--Under intense pressure from Congress and the White House, the Environmental Protection Agency is backing away from plans for a publicized crackdown on people harming the nation's federally protected wetlands.

EPA Administrator William Reilly acknowledged Wednesday that the public and political "backlash" against current wetlands regulations has played a part in putting off a comprehensive "wetlands enforcement initiative" that the agency intended to unveil last month.

"We're out there trying to do the job and also trying to deal with some of the backlash that we have seen develop," he said in an interview.

Business groups representing farmers, homebuilders, oil companies and other land developers have been lobbying to block what they called "overzealous" enforcement plans and to narrow current federal rules that they say define too much of the nation as wetlands.

But environmental groups fear the administration is retreating from President Bush's 1988 campaign pledge to safeguard the nation's dwindling wetlands.

"It gives us, the environmental community, heartburn and real concern when the agencies that are charged with enforcing the environmental statutes are shirking their responsibility," said J. Scott Feierabend of the National Wildlife Federation.

The White House this week directed the Office of Management and Budget to review wetlands guidelines, an action expected to result in new rules that more narrowly define areas that qualify for federal protection.

Members of Congress have lectured Reilly about local "horror stories" of seemingly senseless wetlands regulations and have proposed cutting off funding for the agency's enforcement initiative.

Three dozen House members signed a letter circulated by Rep. John LaFalce (D-N.Y.) which complained to the president about the "regulatory overkill that is being perpetrated in the name of your public policy goal of 'no net loss' of wetlands."

The EPA has sought to quiet some of the protests by drafting revised wetlands guidelines that would drop millions bf acres now covered by federal rules.

That 100-page draft has provoked strong protests from EPA wetlands scientists, but even then it may not go far enough to satisfy critics, including White House Chief of Staff John Sununu.

Wetlands areas are important because they provide refuge for wildlife, prevent flooding, and help filter pollution from ground water.

But the government's rules have caused confusion, frustration, and anger among landowners who complain the rules wrongly encompass millions of areas that have no special environmental significance.

The Clean Water Act requires developers to get permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before developing any property that meets the definition of a wetland, though that requirement is often ignored.

Government officials laid out plans six months ago to give some teeth to President Bush's environmental promises with a major effort to enforce federal laws protecting the nation's swamps, bogs and other environmentally sensitive wetlands.

"The EPA and the Department of the Army have placed high priority on protecting this nation's wetlands and recognize that an active ... enforcement program is one important wetlands protection tool," officials said in an internal document outlining their program last December.

Under the plan, the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers urged their regional offices to pursue wetlands violations so that officials could showcase the wetlands enforcement initiative on April 23 by announcing a "cluster" of legal actions.

Then-EPA enforcement chief James Strock said at the time that packaging the cases together would highlight the government role in safeguarding wetlands and "provide an early deterrent to potential violations" of wetlands laws.

Strock has since left the agency to head the California state environmental protection agency, and the EPA plan ran into opposition from some White House officials.

There was no announcement April 23.

"The message sent from the White House has been to hold off on any packaging of enforcement actions--to go ahead and enforce the law but don't do anything special to package cases until after a overview of wetlands policy takes place," said an administration official.

Reilly said the EPA is continuing to pursue wetlands violators on a case-by-case basis.

In the past six months, the EPA has brought 48 administrative orders to force compliance with wetlands laws, and 12 administrative actions seeking to impose financial penalties.

Six cases have been referred to the Justice Department for possible civil suits, and officials said that several major cases are being developed that could be announced by late June after the new wetlands guidelines have been reviewed.

"I don't intend to bring all the cases at one time necessarily or to integrate them in any kind of public relations or communications effort," Reilly said. "But I intend to see our people-where there are wetlands violations- come down hard on them."

Reilly said the critics have some justification for complaints that the current federal wetlands guidelines are too broad, for instance encompassing 40 percent of Maryland's Eastern Shore and much of suburban Houston.

But he said some people are trying to take advantage of the political controversy.

"For those who do not regard wetlands as having the kinds of environmental values we now know they have, or who believe that the whole process of trying to conserve them is not a legitimate one, this current level of concern creates a moment when they want to be heard," he said.

Reilly has a particular stake in this issue because he had actively pressed for increased wetlands protection when he headed the private Conservation Foundation before joining the Bush administration.

Source: Chicago Tribune, May 9, 1991