This week the Trump administration’s EPA released a new proposed rule that would strip many of our nation’s wetlands (nature’s ultimate Ocean Friendly Gardens), from protections under the Clean Water Act.
Wetlands provide critical habitat for wildlife, support biodiversity, and act as a sponge to protect downstream water quality. They also connect our nation’s immense freshwater network of streams and rivers in ways that aren’t always visible from the surface. Even though a stream may not flow year round, or a wetland looks like it’s not connected to another water body, research shows that these systems are in fact connected, especially during wet weather events. These intermittent streams and wetlands fuel our larger rivers and waterbodies that communities depend on for drinking water and outdoor recreation.
The new proposed “Polluted Water Rule” significantly limits which waterbodies are protected under the Clean Water Act– the federal law that prohibits industry from polluting waterways and developers from filling in wetlands. By revoking protections, the rule paves the way for millions of acres of wetlands to be developed, destroyed and polluted; and even excuses polluters from having to get a permit to pollute seasonal streams. In addition to having severe and immediate impacts to the wildlife that depend on these areas, this regulatory rollback threatens communities both near unprotected wetlands and downstream, including at the beach.
As Kathryn Dressendorfer, Surfrider’s Ocean Friendly Gardens Coordinator, explains, “the paving and development of our natural environments, especially in seasonally flooded areas and wetlands, damages these natural buffer systems that filter and absorb water. The resulting stormwater and runoff pollutes water downstream, and continues to be the number one cause of beach closures nationwide”.
In addition to fighting to protect core policies that protect our nation’s waterways, Surfrider’s Ocean Friendly Gardens program works to mimic the benefits that wetlands and native vegetation provide, especially in coastal urban communities. Dressendorfer continues, “Ocean Friendly Gardens offer many of the same benefits that natural wetlands do - giving water space to slow down, spread out, and sink into healthy soils and native plant roots. This naturally filters out pollution from our roofs, roads, and other hard surfaces that displace stormwater. With more extreme storms and flood risk from climate change, it is more important than ever to have resilient yards and natural green spaces that reduce local flooding and runoff pollution. Through the Ocean Friendly Gardens program, we can take action in our own yards and neighborhoods to support clean water and resilient coastal communities alongside our natural wetlands”.
While nature-based solutions like Ocean Friendly Gardens and constructed wetlands can help mitigate the damage done in developed areas, the value of millions of acres of natural, intact wetlands are unmatched in their capacity for climate resilience, carbon storage, and biodiversity. So many of these natural areas have already been drained, fragmented, and destroyed, weakening our defense against extreme storms, sea level rise, and the global decline of pollinators we rely on, which makes the protection of what remains even more important.
Instead of further reducing protections from our nation’s remaining streams and wetlands, the EPA should be strengthening the Clean Water Act to restore protections that were previously removed under Sackett vs EPA Supreme Court ruling. The EPA will soon open a 45-day comment period to collect public feedback. The Surfrider Foundation is working with our national coalition partners to submit comments in opposition to this harmful proposed rule.