Coastal & Marine | At Risk | Offshore | Vernal Pools |

  Marine & Coastal Issues

Fragile Ecosystems

Vernal pools are small, usually ephemeral, wetlands formed in the spring when they fill in with snowmelt and rainwater, and then dry in the summer. They are an essential breeding habitat for four species in Maine: wood frogs, spotted salamanders, blue-spotted salamanders, and fairy shrimp. Vernal pools provide food and safety for many other species of reptiles, amphibians, mammals and birds.

      ·        Vernal pools, vital to the ecosystems of the entire Northeast, will not be protected under the proposed change in jurisdiction.

·        Rob Baldwin, a researcher at the University of Maine, estimates that vernal pools cover roughly 1,845 acres of the state.3

ECONOMIC DISPARITY

    ·        NEIWPCC is concerned that many New England states which have strong water laws, like Maine, will face economic disadvantage if industries are attracted to states where they are not required to treat their wastewater before discharging it into waters now considered “isolated.”4

·        The CWA's federal floor "levels the playing field" and prevents the proverbial "race to the bottom" so that states that do act to protect their waters from pollution and destruction are not placed at a competitive disadvantage by those states who choose not to do so.

®    “The competitive disadvantage this may impose on Maine with respect to other states might lead to pressures to roll-back our own protections,” said Van Wie.5

®    “Costs associated with these types of loss are inevidtably transferred to cities and towns that are already struggling to comply with drinking water, stormwater and wastewater regulations,” according to Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection.6

State laws Falter without federal backstop

·        Maine’s laws make it very difficult for state agencies to adopt regulations which are more stringent than federal regulations.

·        Maine is one of eighteen states with independent permitting programs that includes “isolated” waters and headwaters within their scope of regulation but still lack the authority and /or the capability to fully protect many of the wetlands and waters that would be put at risk by a CWA jurisdictional limitation.

·        Maine’s Land Use Regulatory Commissions will not be able to assume protection of all wetlands under current CWA jurisdiction, according to NEIWPCC.7

No small problem:  MAINE’S concerns echoed on national scale

·        “Isolated” waters are not actually isolated; damage to these resources will cause damage to waters nationwide.

®    “The isolated wetlands and headwater streams that may be put at greater risk under a narrow definition of “Waters of the United States” in many cases have great ecological value in and of themselves, and their protection provides valuable water quality benefits to larger, navigable resources downstream,”  says Van Wie.8

®    The Association of State Floodplain Managers emphasizes:  “Floodwater does not respect state lines.  [We] believe that flooding is directly related to interstate commerce and the value of wetlands in preventing flooding [and] can be used as a basis for CWA jurisdiction over isolated, intrastate, non-navigable waters."9

·        The economic implications of abandoning many small streams, ponds and wetlands have caused widespread concern

®    “The more we understand these issues the more we realize that even small isolated resources can be impacted by interstate pressures,” says Van Wie.10

®    “A jurisdictional rollback…will only cause deterioration of our country’s water quality and degradation of wetlands systems, both which would have a negative effect on wildlife habitat, aquatic life, recreational use of surface waters, and human health,” reports NEIWPCC.11

®    The Association of State Wetland Managers points out:  “Over time individuals, communities, insurance companies, and others will be required to pay increased costs for drinking water, wastewater and natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes as a result of loss and degradation of water resources.”12

Bowing to developers, mining companies and industrial polluters, the Bush Administration is considering actions which would put Maine’s waters and public health at risk. For nearly 30 years, the Clean Water Act has safeguarded and cleaned up our waters and wetlands. But we know we still have far to go before the job is done.  Americans know how to protect our water and we know we can do better.  The Bush Administration should strengthen clean water protections instead of creating loopholes for polluters.