Unless successfully challenged, or restricted the new, weakened rules
proposed by the Corps will be in effect for the next five years and will
likely lead to significant, unjustifiable losses of wetlands and stream
resources and the ecological services they provide.

**If you are interested in learning how you can help to protect Iowa's
wetlands and streams by writing one letter before February 18, please
contact me for information.  Jane Clark at [log in to unmask]

Changes to Wetlands Permitting Rules Threaten Our Streams and Wetlands

On January 15, 2002, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued new Nationwide
Permits (NWP).  The NWP program is harmful to wetlands because it provides
expedited permitting, without full environmental review or public notice,
for activities that damage and destroy wetlands and streams, such as
roadbuilding, sprawl development projects and mountaintop removal mining.

A Nationwide permit is a general permit that authorizes a category of
activities that the Corps judges to be similar in nature and that have a
minimal individual and cumulative impact on the environment.  However,
wetlands conservationists seriously question that the NWPs meet those Clean
Water Act requirements.  The new NWPs further weaken wetlands protections
by removing improvements added to the NWP program in March 2000.

The good news is there are still ways we can effect how NWPs are applied in
certain regions and in each state, to limit the harm that their use has on
our wetland and streams.

Each of the 38 Corps districts can place limits, or "regional conditions",
on the use of the NWPs within the district. A regional condition is a
limitation adopted by a corps district,  placed on either a NWP or one of
the "general conditions" concerning the permit's implementation in light of
special regional considerations (general conditions apply to NWPs all
across the country, not to a specific region).  Also, each state conducts a
60-day review of the permits (which started on January 15th).  During this
process, states can choose to accept, deny, or place conditions on the use
of any or all of the NWPs within the state.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

1 - Urge your Corps district to add regional conditions to the NWPs
2 - Urge your State Environment Agency to place limits on the NWPs.
*Iowa currently has a public hearing in process.  This comment period ends
on February 18th.

While state denial of a NWP does not mean that permit applications will
receive the same scrutiny as under an individual Corps permit, it does
provide the public with the opportunity to comment on the application.  In
addition, the state has the discretion to seek modifications to the
project, insist on mitigation requirements, or stop the project altogether.

High quality waters and unique systems: No NWPs should be allowed in high
quality and unique ecosystems in your state, like scenic river watersheds,
unique or rare aquatic systems, or in systems that are impossible to
replace through mitigation, such as bogs, fens, coldwater streams, mature
forested wetlands, etc.

Background Information:

In 2000, the Clinton Administration finalized replacements and revisions of
several of the NWPs, scaling back the types of activities allowed.  The
changes culminated a lengthy process.

Now, the Corps has reversed or weakened many of those reforms.  In
finalizing the permits, the Corps ignored most of the objections voiced by
the EPA, the nations top aquatic biologists, and the environmental
community.

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