A recent Supreme Court ruling has triggered concerns that nearly all nontidal wetlands in the contiguous United States could be stripped of federal protections. The ruling revolves around the case of Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, which challenged the scope of the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA).
This act previously extended federal protections to wetlands deemed as “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) to maintain water quality. In May 2023, the Supreme Court defined WOTUS more narrowly, stipulating that the CWA only covers wetlands “indistinguishable” from major water bodies like streams, oceans, rivers, and lakes. This means the wetlands must have a continuous surface connection with these major water bodies to be covered by federal protections.
Adam Gold, who manages Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds for the Environmental Defense Fund, argues in a recent study that this new definition is significantly narrower than past interpretations and neglects extensive scientific evidence on the ecological importance of wetlands.
Court ruling impacts wetland protections
Gold points out that the vague language used by the court creates ambiguous federal jurisdiction requirements for wetlands.
Gold’s study examined flood frequency to quantify “wetness” and found that, if only geographically isolated wetlands that aren’t excluded for being too “dry” are protected, approximately 6.9 million hectares (17 million acres), or 19 percent, of nontidal wetlands would lose federal protection. If the definition requires a wetland to be permanently flooded to be classified as WOTUS, nearly all 36.4 million hectares (90 million acres) of nontidal wetlands could lose protection. The implications of this could be severe, considering the significant benefits of wetland ecosystems, such as flood control, water filtration, and habitat for wildlife.
A loss of federal protection would leave state-level protections as the primary defense against wetland degradation, and these protections vary greatly across the country. Gold emphasizes the need to clarify the Supreme Court’s ruling to better understand its potential impacts on wetlands and inform public discourse and response. The study is published in the Environmental Science and Policy journal.
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