By Brian Allnutt, Planet Detroit
This article was republished with permission from Planet Detroit. Sign up for Planet Detroit’s weekly newsletter here.
Environmental Protection Agency Director Lee Zeldin issued guidance to limit federal protections for wetlands last week that environmental advocates say will lead to more pollution in the Great Lakes.
The definition of the “waters of the United States” in the Clean Water Act is an ongoing point of contention between farms, businesses, real estate interests, and environmentalists, with Trump limiting the wetlands and seasonal streams covered by the act and the Obama and Biden administrations adding protections.
The EPA’s rollback of the “waters of the United States” rule this month follows the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, which ruled the EPA’s authority extends only to wetlands with a “continuous surface connection” to the rivers, lakes and streams that are protected as “navigable waters.”
This removed protections for many areas that flood periodically, endangering ecosystems that provide habitat for wildlife, filter out pollutants, sequester stormwater, and help prevent downstream flooding.
In announcing its new guidelines, the EPA said it would engage “stakeholders who were sidelined during the previous administration” to formulate the new rule, which could mean engaging with farm, industry, and real estate interests that oppose strict clean water rules. The new rule could limit when such businesses need to attain water quality permits, potentially leading to more pollution.
“The (EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) will move quickly to ensure that a revised definition follows the law, reduces red-tape, cuts overall permitting costs, and lowers the cost of doing business in communities across the country while protecting the nation’s navigable waters from pollution,” the agency press release stated.
Michigan is one of only three states with delegated authority to regulate its own wetlands, which could mitigate the effects of the federal rule change. But Michigan could still be impacted if other states harm Great Lakes water quality or if state’s own laws are weakened.
Such changes could have an outsize effect in Michigan. Wetlands cover 15% of the state and water makes up 41.5% of its surface area. Groundwater, which is hydrologically connected to wetlands, is also a vital resource, providing drinking water for 45% of the state.
Zeldin’s statements suggest polluters will get to write their own rules, said Mike Shriberg, an environmental policy expert at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability.
“What we’re seeing with this interpretation of Sackett and the ‘waters of the U.S. rule’ is something that goes against basic science. You can’t pollute and destroy wetlands without harming water quality,” he said
Michigan has more wetland protections than many states
The EPA’s new guidelines could endanger millions of acres of wetlands and lead to downstream pollution, according to environmental groups and former EPA officials.
Zeldin’s actions went beyond the Sackett decision to advance an even narrower interpretation of what should be protected, Betsy Southerland, former director of the Office of Science and Technology in the EPA’s Office of Water, said in a statement.
The guidance would remove protections from “countless seasonal and intermittent streams” that are “vital to maintaining the health of major rivers and lakes” and harm drinking water, Southerland added.
The environmental legal group Earthjustice previously said the Sackett decision endangered 118 million acres of wetlands, an area larger than the state of Montana.
Impacts to water quality from the EPA’s new guidelines could be much smaller in Michigan than other states.
Michigan has delegated authority under the Clean Water Act to issue pollution discharge permits. Part 303 of Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act also regulates wetlands not covered by federal law, including any that are within 1,000 feet of the Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair, within 500 feet of an inland waterway, or larger than 5 acres in size. And local governments in the state are allowed to enact ordinances to protect wetlands less than 5 acres in size.
Liz Kirkwood, executive director of the nonprofit For Love of Water, previously told Planet Detroit that Michigan is one of only three states with authority to carry out section 404 of the federal Clean Water Act, which requires those who disturb federally protected wetlands to obtain a permit and take steps to avoid harm.
“That means those states have wetland regulations that, in some cases, are more stringent than the federal regulations,” Kirkwood said.
Michigan could get hit by pollution from other states, changes to state law
Changes to wetland regulations in other states could affect Michigan. Wisconsin shares a long land border with Michigan and wetlands cover 15% of the state, which also has significant coastlines on Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. In 2017, the Wisconsin legislature and Republican Gov. Scott Walker rolled back the state’s historically strong wetland protections, leaving it vulnerable to federal rule changes.
“The only wetlands that are really regulated in [Wisconsin] are the ones that are falling under federal jurisdiction,” Melissa Scanlan, a water policy expert at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, told Milwaukee Public Radio in 2023.
Michigan’s ability to protect wetlands and waterways could also change if legislators move to sync state regulations to federal ones, Shriberg said.
Lawmakers previously enacted the “no stricter than federal” policy under Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s leadership in 2018. This required state regulators to do more work to defend rules that were stronger than federal ones. The policy was repealed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2023.
Michiganders’ exposure to water pollution from federal rule changes could also be compounded by layoffs at agencies like the EPA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the University of Michigan’s Shriberg. He added that these changes will lead to less monitoring for pollution and less oversight for permits.
“When you’re lowering the standards and then lowering the potential for enforcement of those standards, the combination leads to higher pollution,” he said.
Catch more news at Great Lakes Now:
Who is working to preserve and restore wetlands in Metro Detroit?
Featured image: Midland Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta marginata) adult resting on log Detroit, Michigan, USA. (Photo Credit: iStock)
