By Bob Stokes – Houston Chronicle – September 23, 2011

In April of this year, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps of Engineers issued draft guidance for determining whether a waterway, water body or wetland is protected by the Clean Water Act (CWA). This wetlands guidance is necessary because over the past decade, several U.S. Supreme Court rulings have removed certain critical waters and wetlands from protection under the CWA. These rulings limiting the definition of a jurisdictional wetland have been felt acutely in the Galveston Bay area, as thousands of acres of our prairie pothole wetlands have been determined to no longer be protected under the CWA. Fortunately, the wetlands guidance would bring these wetlands back under the protection of the CWA and reaffirm the intent of the act by protecting all "waters of the United States."  For full article, click here.