As feds stand down, states choose between wetlands protections or rollbacks
For 200 miles, the Wabash River forms the border between Illinois and Indiana as it meanders south to the Ohio River.
On the Illinois side, lawmakers are scrambling to pass a bill that would protect wetlands from development and pollution, in order to safeguard water quality and limit flooding. But in Indiana, state policymakers hastily passed a law earlier this year to roll back wetlands regulations, at the urging of developers and farm groups who said such rules were overly burdensome.
That means the water that flows into the Wabash River from the west may soon be governed by very different standards than its watershed on the eastern side.
The divide is the result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that stripped federal protection from millions of acres of wetlands that had been covered under the Clean Water Act — leaving their fate up to the states.
https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2024/03/21/as-feds-stand-down-states-choose-between-wetlands-protections-or-rollbacks/
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