OPINION/COMMENTARY

Wetlands Law Mired in a Bog

Tomorrow John Rapanos will stand before a federal judge for sentencing. The purported crime of this mid-Michigan builder is violating the federal Clean Water Act by moving sand in a cornfield he owns and had hoped to develop. Having investigated the scene of the "crime," I can attest that Mr. Rapanos' possible incarceration is absurd. Unfortunately, it is but one example of the current abuses of federal "wetlands" law. Mr. Rapanos' cornfield was deemed a wetland by state and federal authorities despite being surrounded by drainage ditches mandated by county drain commissioners in the early 1900s. When I visited the site, having recently ended my tenure as director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, I confirmed that these ditches were in fact keeping the land dry. Moreover, the nearest navigable water — the basis of federal jurisdiction over "wetlands" — was some 20 miles away. Mr. Rapanos no doubt provoked federal authorities when he worked on this farmland in violation of cease-and-desist orders, but there was little to justify the government's use of the Clean Water Act....

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