Conservation News
Developers, Conservationists Predict That New Army Corps of Engineers Rules Will Produce Changes in Wetlands
By John Heilprin, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- To conservationists, new government regulations on wetlands will allow homebuilders to put up single-family dwellings in flood plains and reroute miles of narrow streams.
For developers, the Army Corps of Engineers' reduced requirements for speedy government approval of draining and filling permits is a long-overdue relaxation of changes ordered by Congress.
The regulations, announced Monday, revoke some requirements for winning expedited permits that the Clinton administration imposed on developers during its last year in office.
The rules were adopted without formal comment from the Interior Department, despite objections to several of the measures by the department's Fish and Wildlife Service. Its protests were not forwarded to the corps, said department spokesman Mark Pfeifle, and Interior Secretary Gale Norton sent word that she supported the new plan.
Instead of requiring acre-for-acre restoration on each project, for example, the new regulations state only that there be "no net loss" of wetlands in any of the corps' 38 U.S. districts, which are established on the basis of watersheds rather than state boundaries.
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