Monday, March 13, 2006

Wetlands Preservation

Conservation Costs Less Than Convenience

Type:  Essay
Author:  Ellis Anderson
Publisher:  Coastal Community Watch

Some people may just see wetlands as worthless swampland, but they’re incredibly valuable - they quietly save the state and property owners millions of dollars every year. Not only do wetlands help blunt the effects of surge, they actually help break wind speeds. They also are the incubators for our seafood and sports fishing industries.

And there’s another great economic reason for not building on wetlands - federal flood insurance is heavily subsidized by tax dollars. Why should flood insurance even be offered to new development in places where the risk is exceptional? It’s like building a new home on a train track - you know eventually a locomotive’s going to crash through your kitchen. And American taxpayers will have to foot the bill.

We have to remember that developers don’t have to shoulder the responsibility for what happens in the long term. They fill, build and sell - often leaving behind problems that may plague a community for generations to come. It’s simply not fair to saddle our children with excessive burdens because we were in a hurry or so someone can profit at the cost of the community as a whole. There’s plenty of land available for development in the affected counties without having to trade off our irreplaceable resource.

One CCW member pointed out that under the proposed regulations, if developers want to fill a large portion of land - for example - 100 acres for a golf course - all they’d have to do would be sell 20 five acre adjacent parcels to different investors. Bull-dozers move in and a marsh is gone forever. Piece of cake. That’s a frightening scenario.

We need to hold fast to the current regulations. This is the time to be strengthening our regulations, instead of hamstringing them. The Corps has a responsibility to be stewards of our resources. They may be understaffed and the permitting process may be slow - but if Katrina taught us anything, it’s that in the long run, conservation costs less than convenience.

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