ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996                TAG: 9601050043
SECTION: EDITORIAL                PAGE: F-2  EDITION: METRO 

WETLANDS RIDER INTO THE BUDGET SWAMP

AS THE federal budget games grew uglier last week, House Republicans complained that President Clinton vetoed an appropriations bill that would fund many agencies.

True enough. But the bill, which included appropriations for the Environmental Protection Agency, had a rider attached that would end the EPA's authority to protect the nation's wetlands. Clinton cited this as one provision prompting his veto.

Which may sound like a small reason to hold up an $80 billion appropriations bill that funds programs for a host of other federal programs besides environmental protection.

It isn't.

The rider would have taken away the EPA's veto power over permits issued to developers by the Army Corps of Engineers for wetlands projects. The EPA has exercised this veto only 11 times, but critics and advocates of its role agree that the threat of a veto can influence, and sometimes cause to be scaled back, many projects affecting wetlands.

Developers may hate this. In some cases, enforcement of the rules has been too broad or intrusive. The country, though, has generally benefited.

Why? "Swampland," once regarded as worthless until it was drained and developed for "something useful," has critical value in its original state. People just didn't figure this out until it started to be filled in.

Besides their value as habitat for plant and animal species, wetlands play a crucial role in cleansing groundwater and controlling floods. Ninety-five percent of rural households in America, and 35 percent of urban households, get their water from underground aquifers. Wetlands naturally filter out impurities before water reaches aquifers.

Certainly, the floods that put vast stretches of the Midwest under water in 1993 would have been less devastating had the importance of wetlands been understood, and heeded, when the Army Corps was re-engineering the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

This isn't a small issue. It has the potential to profoundly affect the lives of millions of Americans.

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