The Burnham Prairie wetland in south suburban Burnham is protected because it is in the Cook County Forest Preserves, but other critical wetlands in Illinois have lost their protections because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year.
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In Illinois, certain wetlands are at risk. The Legislature has an opportunity to protect them, and it should.
Wetlands store carbon; provide habitat for endangered species; reduce flooding and erosion; and improve water quality by filtering pollution. Wetlands also stockpile nutrients that nurture plants and animals, and they recharge layers of groundwater that feed into streams and lakes through seeps and springs.
But Illinois has lost some 90% of the wetlands it had a couple of hundred years ago, and some others have been degraded. Many of those that remain are endangered because, in a case called Sackett v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court last May gutted protections for wetlands that are not connected to larger bodies of water, which include more than half the nation’s wetlands. Those safeguards had existed for decades.
Before the Supreme Court acted, some states had established at least some level of their own wetlands protections, but Illinois relied on the federal government to protect its wetlands under the 1972 Clean Water Act. The state’s remaining wetlands that are not clearly connected to larger bodies of water — along with the benefits they provide — could disappear if they are bulldozed for development, polluted or drained.
Companion bills with numerous co-sponsors, which have cleared committees in the Illinois Senate and House, would provide protection for threatened wetlands that is comparable to what the federal rules provided. The Senate bill appears to be the one that will advance. The Senate bill also would instruct the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to inventory small streams, which could provide the data necessary to protect those streams at a later point. The bill would not supersede wetland protection ordinances in Cook and other Chicago area counties, which were designed to act in concert with the federal protections, provided the local rules are as strong as the state’s.
A state law is necessary because water crosses jurisdictional boundaries, and what benefits one part of the state will benefit other areas as well.
State Rep. Anna Moeller, D-Elgin, told us that supporters of the legislation are still negotiating with stakeholders and hope to pass something in May when lawmakers return to Springfield after next week’s break. This is not something that should be kicked over to the next legislative session after the current one is expected to end May 31. Once bogs, fens, marshes and swamps are gone, they are probably gone forever, and the water they once absorbed could easily wind up in someone’s basement.
“It’s incredibly important,” said Moeller, who introduced the House bill.
When wetlands are lost to development, the costs of additional flooding, poor water quality and other issues are often borne by the general public. Those costs are likely to rise as climate change brings stronger and more frequent storms.
“Wetlands, certainly around Cook County, are important because of the plants and animals that live there, the migratory waterfowl that depend on stopping there and all sorts of species of insects, mammals, birds and amphibians that depend on wetlands for a place to live and nest and get something to eat,” said Carl Vogel, director of communications for the Cook County Forest Preserves. “They are critical habitats.”
Many states are facing the same issue as Illinois. A new report titled “America’s Most Endangered Rivers” by the environmental group America’s Rivers says last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision will impact the quality of rivers that supply drinking water all over the nation.
Opposition to Illinois’ legislation has come from, among others, real estate interests and the Illinois Farm Bureau, though normal farming activities will remain exempt, just as they were under the Clean Water Act.
But Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Cameron “Cam” Davis, who is a part-time farmer, said, “More and more farmers are understanding that protecting wetlands is in their own economic benefit.”
Illinois needs its remaining wetlands and should protect them.
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