Senate Hearing Highlights Partisan Divide on Wetlands Ruling

Nearly 5 million miles of ephemeral streams lost federal protection under the Clean Water Act following the Supreme Court’s May wetlands ruling in Sackett v. EPA, a scientist said during a Senate hearing Wednesday.

“Sackett disregards the established science around non-perennial wetlands,” said Mažeika Patricio Sulliván, a coastal ecology professor at Clemson University, during the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing.

“The decision is catastrophic for water protection across the US,” Sulliván said. “The ruling removes the majority of US wetlands from federal protections.”

The hearing showed the sharp partisan divide on the implications of Sackett, which ...