Terre Haute Tribune-Star
A legislative maneuver reminiscent of Chicago-style machine politics threatens to further degrade Indiana’s crucial, dwindling wetlands.
It was an arrogant tactic, enabled by the Republican Party’s supermajority status in the Indiana General Assembly.
Republicans in the Indiana House of Representatives used a bill to regulate septic systems — approved with bipartisan support in the Indiana Senate — as the tool to slide in an amendment that will make it more difficult to classify a wetland for protection. More specifically, it also will make it easier for developers to build on Hoosier wetlands.
A Republican member of the House Environmental Affairs Committee introduced the amendment to the septic systems bill just two hours before that committee was to meet on March 22, the Indianapolis Star reported. The amendment appears to be a follow-up to the controversial law enacted by the Legislature in 2021 that removed state oversight of most remaining Hoosier wetlands — natural areas of saturated grounds. Those wetlands serve an important ecological function by naturally filtering water and mitigating flooding from heavy rainfall.
Originally, the 2021 legislation was intended to strip nearly all wetlands protections. Immense opposition to the plan led to a degree of compromise. Protections were kept by lawmakers for wetlands rated more highly as Class 2 or Class 3, the Star reported. It still opened the door for development on thousands of acres of wetlands, but at least the law — Senate Enrolled Act 389 — retained some crucial protections.
Apparently, that was not enough for the House GOP leadership.
The amendment introduced in the Environmental Affairs Committee makes it harder to classify a wetlands at a level 2 or 3. Under the existing 2021 law, wetlands could be protected by meeting one of three criteria — supporting minimal wildlife, serving as an aquatic habitat, or possessing a hydrologic function (or being a rare wetland type). The new amendment would require a wetland to meet all three criteria.
Committee member Rep. Doug Miller, an Elkhart Republican and construction company owner, according to the Star, introduced the amendment. With its late introduction, just one person testified regarding the amendment — not surprisingly, the CEO of the Indiana Builders Association, a powerful lobbying group. Democrats failed to persuade committee chairman Rep. Alan Morrison, a Brazil Republican, to hold the Senate Bill 414 to allow time for more consideration and public input. (The amended bill has since passed the House and was referred back to the Senate with amendments.)
As a statement from the The Nature Conservancy put it, “Here we go again, another assault on wetlands in Indiana at a time when Hoosiers need this precious resource more than ever.”
A majority of Hoosiers support wetlands protections. The ruling party’s power play should not stand.
