Wetlands, streams in danger of increased pollution

The state’s wetlands, smaller streams and springs are becoming polluted and fragile because federal regulators have decided these waterways don’t fall under the Clean Water Act, a report released Thursday says.

According to “Imperiled Treasures,” a report from the National Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited, Trout Unlimited and the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings and agency actions have put Southwest waterways in danger. In addition to affecting coastal marshlands and remote lakes in West Texas, the changing rules could harm some wetlands and oxbow lakes in the Rio Grande Valley, experts say.

“The wildlife habitat (in the Valley) already is vastly altered,” said Janice Bezanson of the Texas Conservation Alliance, who participated in a press conference announcing the report Thursday. “Any water source in that area is critical … now, isolated wetlands are no longer protected, and those isolated water sources are, in some respects, the most important.”

After the Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that geographically isolated ponds weren’t protected by the Clean Water Act, federal agencies later released guidelines saying that some remote waterways didn’t fall under federal protection. Recent Supreme Court decisions have cast doubt on whether intermittently flowing streams and isolated wetlands are covered under the act either, said Jim Murphy, wetlands and water-resources counsel for the National Wildlife Federation.

In Texas, about 75 percent of the water available is “intermittent,” meaning it only flows in certain conditions. The state also has 4 million acres of wetlands scattered across the Texas coastal plains, and 20,000 “playa lakes” in West Texas that help recharge the Ogalalla Aquifer, according to the report.

These waters need protection, too, Bezanson said.

“There is a lack of state-level protection in Texas — it’s tied to federal protections,” she said. “If the federal protections go away, essentially the state protections go away.”

In the Valley, however, most waterways are protected under the Clean Water Act, said John Wong, senior project manager for the Corpus Christi field office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The agency, along with the Environmental Protection Agency, regulates U.S. waters.

The Rio Grande, the Arroyo Colorado, the Laguna Madre and the Valley’s resacas all are “jurisdictional,” meaning they’re subject to federal water-quality regulations, Wong said.

Under the Clean Water Act, any developers seeking to build near a waterway must apply for a permit and meet certain standards for cleaning discharges before they enter the water. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and other environmental agencies also have a say in the permitting process, said Kendal Keyes, coastal ecologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Currently, the only Valley waterways that aren’t under federal jurisdiction are oxbow lakes or ponds that are unconnected with larger water bodies like the Rio Grande or Gulf of Mexico, Wong said. For example, meandering waterways that once connected to resacas might not be covered, he said. Manmade drainage ditches aren’t either.

As interpretations of Clean Water Act rules change, federal oversight for wetlands and other now-jurisdictional waterways could diminish, Keyes said.

“The wetlands (in South Texas) have been considered jurisdictional and have been granted protection, but that could be changing … and we’re concerned,” she said. “They keep rewriting the laws. It’s anyone’s guess what they could do.”