Heather Wilcox considers herself a water buff.
The south Jackson resident studies water – and ways to conserve it – as a master’s student at Jackson State University.
And she worries about the future of the state’s small streams and wetlands, which are not covered by the Clean Water Act and can be built over and filled.
According to the letter of the law, they don’t count as actual waterways.
“It’s a big issue,” Wilcox said. “Even if it’s in a different area, it can affect us in some way.”
Data from the National Wildlife Federation show that 64 percent of Mississippi’s streams are considered too small for Clean Water Act protection because they are not navigable or do not flow year-round.
“We want people to realize how important these waters are,” said Jan Goldman-Carter, an attorney with the NWF’s Wetlands & Water Resources Counsel. “They can prevent floods and have an impact on water quality.”
Wildlife experts like Goldman-Carter want this changed. They want federal regulations to include all wetlands and streams – no matter how small or if they are geographically isolated – to fall into the provisions of the Clean Water Act. The act prevents streams from being polluted, filled in or altered severely by human activity.
Goldman-Carter and others convened Friday in Jackson for the Clean Water Summit, an effort to reach out to residents and show them why legislative changes are integral to the act first adopted in 1972.
And they have spent years urging Congress to redefine the Act and broaden it to “waters of the United States.”
The Clean Water Act protects “navigable waters,” but many want the language broadened to “waters of the United States.”
Without these protections, flooding and pollution will increase because streams and wetlands play an important part in managing water and reducing pollutants, Goldman-Carter said.
For example, one acre of wetlands can hold 1 million-1.5 million gallons of water. Mississippi coastal counties have lost a third of their wetlands to development, she said.
“Everyone has their stream they love,” said Cathy Shropshire, executive director of the Mississippi Wildlife Federation, one of the organizers of the summit held at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science.
The idea is to bring local people together, Shropshire said. “Hopefully people will get energized to want to work together,” she said.
Wilcox was among the 50 who attended the summit, which she said opened her eyes to the issues of streams in the state.
“It shows how Mississippi fits in to the rest of the U.S., and how Mississippi does not have a lot of restrictions,” she said.
Two key U.S. Supreme Court decisions, in 2001 and 2006, reeled in Clean Water Act protections. Shropshire said she hopes the conference will help rally people to extend the Act’s provisions to include the smaller streams and wetlands, which it did for decades before the court rulings.
Congressional leaders debated – but have not approved – the Clean Water Restoration Act in the 2009-10 legislative session. It would extend protections to all streams and wetlands.
“Many people didn’t read it,” Ducks Unlimited Director of Conservation Operations Scott Yaich said. “It generated fear among landowners that it would be a new set of regulations.”
The Restoration Act, which died in the Senate, does not add regulations that pre-date 2001. It just clarifies them, he said.
Yaich said he expects U.S. lawmakers to debate the issue again next year, noting the impact reduction of water sources has on waterfowl populations.
The state has about 41,000 duck hunters, who account for an economic output of $17 million and a state tax revenue of $1.4 million.
“It’s important to this state,” he said.
The Clarion-Ledger, 1B, Oct. 10, 2010
