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Wetlands
policy bogged down
South Bend
Tribune - 9/8
INDIANAPOLIS --
Lawmakers and others have started the hard work of crafting a
state wetlands policy that could replace the swamp of laws and
rules that now govern them.
It's a divisive
issue. Indiana has lost about 85 percent of its original wetlands
areas, and much of the remaining acreage is coveted on one side by
developers,
industry and farmers, and on the other by conservationists.
Pro-economic
development forces tried to push laws favorable to them through
the Indiana General Assembly this year, while environmentalists
backed new regulations proposed by the state Department of
Environmental Management.
Lawmakers did not
resolve the struggle but took two steps to assert their role in
setting policy.
First, they
forbade a state rule-making agency from adopting IDEM's proposed
regulations until at least next year. Second, they directed a
state advisory board to recommend new legislation for
consideration next year.
That board, the
Environmental Quality Service Council, launched work last week by
appointing three work groups to tackle different wetlands issues
-- wetlands categories, incentives for restoration and statutory
authority.
According to
participants, the larger topic -- wetlands -- is probably too
broad for the EQSC to cover thoroughly in the allotted time.
"But I think we can probably get into the framework of
it," said Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield.
Gard leads the
work group on statutory authority, which tried for two hours
Friday to define key terms. The group also wrestled briefly with a
more fundamental question: Should Indiana change current policies
that rely on a nexus of federal and state laws and administrative
regulations?
Gard answered
yes, based on the General Assembly's directive to the EQSC and on
two court decisions -- one federal and one state -- that have
pushed the issue.
But she said the
work groups can only succeed if they address broad principles of
regulation, not every detail.
"I'm a
little overwhelmed how we're going to get done in the next six
weeks," she said.
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