Supreme Court Gives U.S. Broad ‘Wetlands’ Control

WASHINGTON —  The Supreme Court today gave the federal government broad power to regulate, and even prevent, development of “wetlands”--millions of acres of swamps, marshes and bogs across the nation.

The justices ruled unanimously that the Army Corps of Engineers may require a Michigan developer to get a permit before adding dirt fill to land about a mile from Lake St. Clair.

Today’s decision reversed a U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said not all wetlands next to navigable bodies of water and their tributaries are subject to corps regulation under the Clean Water Act.

All ‘Adjacent’ Wetlands

The act requires permits for filling “waters of the United States,” and since 1975 the corps has interpreted the law to apply to all “freshwater wetlands” next to other water.

“We cannot say that the corps’ judgment on these matters is unreasonable, and we therefore conclude that a definition of ‘waters of the United States’ encompasses all wetlands adjacent to other bodies of water over which the corps has jurisdiction,” Justice Byron R. White wrote for the court.

The appeals court last year had ruled that Riverside Bayview Homes Inc., a developer in the Detroit suburb of Harrison Township, did not need a permit before adding fill to land on which it planned to build an 80-acre housing development.

2.13 Million Acres

The appeals court gave a narrow interpretation to the Clean Water Act’s definition of wetlands subject to regulation under the law.

Justice Department lawyers said the 6th Circuit Court’s ruling, if upheld, would have exempted 2.13 million acres of wetlands in the four states encompassed by that judicial circuit--Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee.

The Michigan controversy began in 1976, when Riverside Bayview Homes began filling in dirt on its property without permission of the Corps of Engineers.