starnewsonline.com -- WILMINGTON, NC -- Local developers are holding their breath as courts
examine a controversial federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
rule aimed at cleaning up the nation's drinking water. The Clean Water Rule, which went into effect Aug. 28, aims to clarify
Environmental Protection Agency authority over certain bodies of water.
In addition to navigable waterways, the rule states that the EPA has
jurisdiction over streams, ditches, wetlands and other bodies of water
that connect to those waterways or are within certain distances. An
appeals court decision stayed the rule Oct. 9 after several states sued
to stop its implementation.
The Clean Water Rule,
which went into effect Aug. 28 but was stayed by a court decision Oct.
9, clarifies what bodies of water are under EPA jurisdiction. Millions
of acres of wetlands and 60 percent of the nation's streams had been in
regulatory limbo for the last decade -- the rule reinforces federal
authority over these areas that feed drinking water systems for nearly a
third of the nation. But
the rule could mean more permitting and paperwork is required when
building near these bodies of water. At a presentation Wednesday in
Wilmington, developers from Southeastern North Carolina learned about
how the stalled rule could impact them; representatives from Wilmington
and Jacksonville city governments and Rep. David Rouzer's office also attended.
Wednesday's
event was hosted by the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce and Business
Alliance for a Sound Economy. Among the presenters was David Syster of
Southern Environmental Group Inc., a Wilmington-based consulting group. Syster
explained that the rule was proposed to reduce red tape by clarifying
the EPA's authority. But he said it may have the opposite effect in
low-lying areas: streams and wetlands within 4,000 feet of the tide
line, within 100 feet of the high water mark of navigable waters and
within 1,500 feet of that mark in the 100-year floodplain are now under
EPA jurisdiction.
