Supreme Court wades into wetlands

– May 31, 2023 –

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Wetlands protections shrink

In a decision handed down last week in Sackett v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed federal protections for wetlands, potentially exposing many swamps, bogs and marshes across the U.S. to filling and development, as Law Professor Albert Lin explains in The Conversation.

Environmental activists in Georgia reacted quickly to the decision, which Rena Peck, executive director of the Georgia River Network, called “bad news for clean water.” 

“It means that fewer wetlands in Georgia will be protected under the Clean Water Act,” she wrote to The Current. “These wetlands are critically important for keeping Georgia’s rivers — our drinking water sources and our recreational waters — clean. The health of these rivers is dependent upon the the health of the thousands of streams that feed rivers and the health of those streams is dependent on healthy, functioning wetlands. Wetlands are the kidneys of our river systems and without them, our rivers end up on life support. We pay the price in dirty water and in expensive ‘fixes’ to clean up that water. 

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, a Republican who represents Coastal Georgia, cheered the court’s decision on Twitter, posting “Today’s ruling puts farmers and ranchers before Washington bureaucrats. Burdensome, expensive, and intrusive federal regulations are anti-American!”

Georgia coastal marshlands, which remain protected under the Clean Water Act, are also protected from direct harm by Georgia’s Coastal Marshlands Protection Act. But Dave Kyler, executive director of the Center for a Sustainable Coast, notes that coastal marshes are downstream from wetlands that are losing protection.

“With all the industrial, commercial, and housing development ongoing throughout Georgia, this decision will increase hazards to our natural resources and public health, caused by polluted stormwater runoff generated by widespread landscape disruption,” Kyler wrote in an email to The Current. “These adverse impacts will be cumulatively compounded in coastal Georgia, located downstream in the vast watersheds of major river systems.”

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‘Average’ hurricane season predicted

Thursday marks the start of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National is forecasting an average hurricane season with 12 to 17 total named storms (with winds of 39 mph or higher). Of those, 5 to 9 could become hurricanes, (with winds of 74 mph or higher), including 1 to 4 major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher).

Climate change is not increasing the number of hurricanes we see, but it is blamed for making hurricanes intensify more rapidly and produce more rainfall. That makes a couple upgrades to NOAA’s hurricane tools especially valuable.

First, the National Hurricane Center’s Tropical Weather Outlook graphic, which shows tropical cyclone formation potential, will increase its forecast range from five to seven days.

Second, the Weather Prediction Center is also extending the Excessive Rainfall Outlook an additional two days, providing forecasts up to five days in advance. The increased warning comes after flooding from tropical storm rainfall proved to be the single deadliest hazard over the last 10 years. The outlook shows general areas at risk for flash flooding due to excessive rainfall.

Hurricane season ends Nov. 30.

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DNR Commissioner steps down

Mark Williams, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, bade a tearful goodbye to the department as he announced he was stepping down at the May 23 board meeting. Williams, CEO of Harris Real Estate and former state legislator from Jesup, is the sixth DNR commissioner, but the first coastal resident to serve in the position. Gov. Sonny Perdue appointed him in 2010. The Brunswick News reports Williams is leaving DNR to become director of the Jekyll Island Authority, the state-designated entity that manages the barrier island. He starts that position July 1. Gov. Brian Kemp has not announced Williams’ replacement at DNR.

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Of note

• The first of two new Vogtle reactors is now operating at 100% capacity, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports, more than seven years after its planned start date of April 1, 2016. The expansion of Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle, on the Savannah River near Waynesboro, is expected to cost $35 billion, more than twice the originally approved price tag. The average Georgia Power residential customer has already paid close to $1,000 in their monthly bills for Vogtle. When Unit 3 becomes fully operational Georgia Power expects to increase bills by about $4/month.

• Joe Thomas is the new executive director of the Sapelo Foundation. Thomas was the director of development at Georgia Conservation Voters and previously worked at the Savannah Tree Foundation and Trees Atlanta. Based in Savannah, the Sapelo Foundation seeks to increase environmental protection, social prosperity, and civic power throughout the state.

• An electric vehicle infrastructure company, Voltera, is petitioning to build the region’s first EV truck charging station in Garden City, Nancy Guan of the Savannah Morning News reports. Despite assurances that electric trucks would reduce local air pollution, the city’s planning commission delayed its decision on the charging station.

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