Senate Bill 389 would remove all state protections of wetlands in Indiana and in doing so would be seriously environmentally damaging without general economic benefit. Instead, it passes the costs of environmental responsibility from developers to you. While I find wetlands beautiful and marvel at the array of wildlife they support, I will temporarily set aside those aesthetics and focus here on their instrumental value, that is, what they do for us.
One of the reasons we have flooding downtown is because we have lost water storage capacity upstream. Wetlands “detain” flood waters and help keep streams and rivers from being too “flashy” with surges of storm water. That water has to go somewhere. If it is not stored upstream, it will be “stored” along the rivers, including downtown. Wetlands also act as filters for a variety of pollutants. Related to flooding, they help capture sediments and keep them from entering streams, to be redeposited on river bottoms. Those deposits, themselves increasingly caused by flooding, raise water levels as well downstream, and increase flooding further.
Other pollutants from residential and agricultural activities are also captured and processed in wetlands. There is ample research showing that wetlands have “ecosystem functions” that hold and modify pollutants to make them less noxious. Recall the recent environmental disaster in Toledo of the cyanobacteria bloom, caused by phosphate pollution from up this way, that led to massive fish kills and the shutdown of the city’s public water system. Given these examples, we can see that savings to some by not protecting wetlands leads us to collectively pay for processing this excess water and variety of pollutants that in part resulted from wetland loss. We “socialize” the responsibility for the actions of some making a short term profit by polluting the commons. The problem does not simply wash downstream – we pay for it here. Or our kids and their kids will.
Arguments are made that wetlands are already protected federally. That is largely not the case. Much of the responsibility for protecting wetlands is at the state level. In Indiana, most wetlands, and in particular “isolated” wetlands - those that lack an obvious connection to streams - are not covered by federal law. Federal protections focus on “navigable waters” and immediately adjacent wetlands. However, all natural bodies of water are connected over time via surface flow and percolation, including the aquifers beneath us.
In the end, even if you do not care too much about migratory waterfowl, lady slipper orchids, pitcher plants, dragonflies and basking turtles, it is clear that wetlands have utility to humanity for their environmental services. SB 389 has passed a senate vote and is over in the House for a vote before going to Governor Holcomb. Consequently, if you wish to express your opinion about it -either way - to your state representatives, now is the time to make your voice heard.
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