Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
Volume 10, Number 3 • May-July 2002
Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat NewsThe Newsletter of the Great Lakes
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John Ritzenthaler
Audubon Ohio
Ohio has already lost 90 percent of its wetlands, yet the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) has proposed rules that would adversely affect isolated wetlands in Ohio – those wetlands not connected to waterways. Approximately 45 percent of the remaining wetlands in Ohio are considered “isolated.”
The newly proposed rules make it easier for developers to destroy existing natural wetlands. Although apparently meeting a “no net loss” of wetlands mandated by federal policy, the state rules make it easier to “move” and “replace” wetlands. Wetlands most likely would be destroyed by development in one area, and replaced outside of the watershed or region in which they were originally found. The rules do not include policies of avoidance
of wetlands, minimization of effects on wetlands, or mitigation of wetlands near the original site. And there is concern that these new rules may be broadly applied to all wetlands.
Studies have shown that new wetlands built through mitigation agreements lack the functions of natural wetlands. This problem is compounded if they are built outside of the area the original wetland served. A National Academy of Sciences study outlines the deficiencies of constructed wetlands. The new rules should address this problem–if a wetland is allowed to be destroyed, the rules should, at a minimum, require that its wetland functions are replaced within the same watershed.
The OEPA should be in the business of protecting our remaining wetlands. A closer look at these proposed rules is necessary to do that. Conservation organizations throughout the state have submitted comments outlining the problems affecting wetlands inherent in the proposed rules, and suggested solutions. Visit their website at: www.nap.edu/books/0309074320/html/
A recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report identifies four rivers in Ohio which are badly contaminated and continue to pollute Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes. The Maumee, Ashtabula, Black, and Cuyahoga are the rivers named in the GAO report.
The named Ohio rivers are just four of 43 “contaminated areas of concern” in the Great Lakes Basin. Remedial action plans for these rivers are a federal responsibility, one currently not attended to by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency because of bureaucratic confusion and staff cuts. In fact, none of the 26 areas of concern in the U.S. Great Lakes region have completed three-stage remedial action plans nor have any been restored to a designated level of “beneficial use.”
Senator Mike DeWine (R., Ohio) chairs the Great Lakes Task Force and intends to introduce a bill authorizing cleanup grants to states. Up to $50 million per year for the grants would be authorized for the EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office (compared to the current $3.2 million).
A new directory has been produced that gives regional information on environmental resources available to Ohio communities in a single, easy-to-use reference. The manual is the result of a partnership between the Ohio EPA Office of Environmental Education and the Environmental Education Council of Ohio.
The free directory provides educators a source for finding information and resources in their area and includes an index that details a myriad of opportunities available in Ohio.
Available online and downloadable, it is available at www.environmentaleducationohio.org under EEOhio Publications. Copies also will be distributed to Ohio teachers and environmental educators, and can be received on request by e-mailing oeef@epa.state.oh.us, or calling (614) 644-2873.
John Ritzenthaler |