Supporters of the Clean Water Act demonstrate outside the U.S. Supreme Court, which just made it harder for the federal government to police water pollution. Even in these highly polarized times, clean water should be a bipartisan issue. So should reducing the risk of flooding. Wetlands like bogs or swamps help on both fronts, acting as nature’s sponges, filtering our water with their plants and holding back millions of gallons of floodwater from our streets.
That’s disastrous for our country, and we’re not immune from its effects in New Jersey. What we need now is for Congress to step in and make the intent of the law explicit, and for the Murphy administration to tighten up state regulations to ensure that we’re protecting our wetlands. Because even though New Jersey has strong rules, we still depend on this federal backstop.
The Alito opinion interpreted its protections to apply only to the wetlands that directly adjoin large bodies of water like rivers and lakes. This ignores science and basic common sense: Protecting our water supply means not just the wetlands that are touching the waters, but the wetlands that are nearby.
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