After a concerted lobbying effort by property developers, mine owners and
farm groups, the Bush administration scaled back proposed guidelines for
enforcing a key Supreme Court ruling governing protected wetlands and streams.
The administration last fall prepared broad new rules for interpreting the
decision, handed down by a divided Supreme Court in June 2006, that could have
brought thousands of small streams and wetlands under the protection of the
Clean Water Act of 1972. The draft guidelines, for example, would allow the
government to protect marsh lands and temporary ponds that form during heavy
rains if they could potentially affect water quality in a nearby navigable
waterway.
But just before the new guidelines were to be issued last September, they were
pulled back in the face of objections from lobbyists and lawyers for groups
concerned that the rules could lead to federal protection of isolated and
insignificant swamps, potholes and ditches.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers, charged
with enforcing the Clean Water Act, finally issued new guidelines last month,
which environmental and recreational groups said were ...