The Corps promised in 1996 that, when NWP 26 was phased out, they would replace it with quick-permits that would better comply with the Clean Water Act, by authorizing wetlands destroying projects that caused truly minimal damage to the environment. But the Army Corps has reneged! The proposed replacement package--a set of 6 activity-based nationwide permits and modifications to 6 existing nationwides--expands the scope of quick-permitting and invites more wetlands destruction. The proposal means more sprawl. More harm to water quality. More flooding. More damage to important habitat for birds, fish and wildlife.

"Clearly, the Army Corps of Engineers was right in recognizing the need to improve the program," said Kathryn Hohmann, the Sierra Club's Environmental Quality Director. "The Corps' nationwide permitting program has been out of control." She noted that the Corps has issued nationwide permits to virtually everyone who applies.

For instance in California, between 1988 and 1996, developers got 98.7 percent of the permits. In Florida, 99.1 percent were okayed, according to the government's own data. In 1995 alone, these rubber stamp permits authorized more than 130,000 wetland destruction activities. The Army Corps of Engineers grants these permits with no public input, no advanced warning, and no accountability. Almost all of the permits are approved in less than 20 days.

The new proposal makes the situation worse, expanding on quick-permitting in several ways. It would subject all non-tidal wetlands to the replacement permits, whereas NWP 26 was only applicable to isolated and headwater wetlands. The "Master Planned Development" permit, would authorize fills for sprawl developments of as much as 10 acres in size, a gross expansion on the threshold of the current version of NWP 26.

Hence, the public would be written out of the opportunity to review and comment on a vastly increased range of projects that would directly impact them and their quality of life. Another aspect of the Corps' proposal with which the Club and other organizations disagree is the Corps' misuse of regional conditioning to promote support for the proposal. The Corps has incorporated into the current proposal a plan for allowing the public, interested stakeholders, and state and local officials to moderate the damage from this set of nationwides by adopting regional conditions--restrictions on the application of the permits to certain watersheds, types of wetlands, or times of year for activities in their region.

"In other words," said Hohmann, "the Corps is appealing to the self-interest of the public to worry about their local resources, and ignore the reduction in the level of protection that would apply to wetlands across the nation."

Wetlands and Clean Water Campaign Steering Committee Chair Robin Mann pointed out that "with this proposal the Army Corps has abandoned its commitment to narrow the scope of the program. We are reaching out to Club members and their contacts to help fight the adoption of this proposal. We'd like to see Sierra Club members, by the thousands, send comments to the Corps opposing the permits, and, equally important, let the Clinton/Gore Administration know that this proposal would shipwreck the Clean Water Acion Plan's commitment to restore 100,000 acres of wetlands per year."

The Corps' proposal includes separate permits for the following purposes:

1. NWP A: fills of up to 3 acres for residential, institutional and commercial development;

2. NWP B: fills for Master Planned Developments on a sliding scale of up to 10 acres

3. NWP C: filling of wetlands or other waters up to 2 acres with stormwater management basins and other structures;

4. NWP D: fills of up to 1 acre of wetlands passive recreational projects such as expansions of golf courses and ski areas as well as hiking and biking trails;

5. NWP E: aggregate mining (i.e., sand, gravel, crushed stone) and hard rock metal and mineral mining impacting up to 2 acres of wetlands and streams;

6. NWP F: reshaping of drainage ditches. Existing permits that would be expanded include:

The Corps argues that they are offering sufficient safeguards to prevent more than minimal harm to wetlands and other waters by requiring that they be notified of projects over a certain size before the bulldozing begins. The Corps would hence have the ability to intercept projects that were too extensive for a quick permit and needed a fuller environmental review.

The Sierra Club and other environmental organizations will argue that the Corps has not proven that these permits would only result in minimal damage, individually and cumulatively. Furthermore, eliminating public participation and automatic involvement of the federal resource agencies in reviewing these projects would leave many more decisions up to district engineers under pressure from developers and other special interests to let them fill and destroy wetlands as efficiently as possible.

In their proposal, noted Hohmann, the Corps claims that this regulatory package will "improve the protection of our aquatic resources" and suggests that "those who have implemented the NWPs for the past 20 years" are in a position to judge accurately how the proposal represents progress for the environment.

"To those on the receiving end of the abuse of Clean Water Act requirements, seeing the thousands of permit authorizations that have filled and destroyed the wetlands that filter our drinking water sources, retain flood waters, and provide essential habitat for fish and wildlife," said Hohmann, "this claim by the Army Corps seems the height of arrogance."

The proposal was published in the July 1st Federal Register [v. 63, no. 126, pp. 36039-36078] and is available from the Corps' home page on the internet: http://www.usace.army.mil/inet/functions/cw/cecwo/reg/ Comments to the Army Corps must be received by August 31, 1998 at: HQUSACE, CECW-OR, Washington, DC 20314-1000. Call Vice President Gore at: 202-456-2326. For information or questions on sending comments to the Army Corps, contact your Chapter office or the Sierra Club's Environmental Quality Team in the DC office, 202-547-1141.

Note: The Baltimore District plans to hold a public meeting to solicit suggestions for regional conditions to be placed on these permits. The Sierra Club and other environmentalists are requesting that all these NWPs be suspended throughout Maryland. For information about regional conditions, call 410-962-3670.