Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court stripped protections from wetlands in its Sackett v. EPA ruling, putting almost all nontidal wetlands at risk. New research from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) found the decision puts 30 million acres of wetlands in the Upper Midwest (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin) at risk of destruction by industrial agriculture and other industries, at a potential cost of more than $22 billion in annual flood mitigation benefits.
“The United States already has lost half its wetlands since our country’s founding, and the rapid growth of agriculture is the single biggest culprit,” said Dr. Stacy Woods, research director for the Food and Environment Program at UCS and author of the report. “Now, the Sackett decision has put tens of millions of acres of wetlands in the Upper Midwest at risk of losing protections and being polluted, converted to farmland or otherwise developed. As the climate crisis increases the frequency and severity of flooding, wetlands become increasingly valuable as natural flood protection that can capture and slow flood waters that threaten homes. The loss of remaining wetlands will have very real consequences for people living in the Midwest.”
The UCS research builds on peer-reviewed research which estimated one acre of wetlands provides $745 of flood mitigation benefits to residential homes. Those costs would otherwise be borne by homeowners and taxpayers through the National Flood Insurance Program.
Previous flood events in the Midwest have caused billions of dollars in damages. Just this year, the region saw record flooding in June, with some areas receiving up to 20 inches of rain.
In addition to their role in flood prevention, healthy, intact wetlands play an important role in filtering water pollution to keep rivers, lakes, and drinking water sources clean. Persistent overuse and runoff of fertilizer and pesticides from industrial agriculture overwhelms that filtering capacity, polluting and degrading wetlands and waters downstream. This risk is heightened in the Upper Midwest where farmland accounts for more than 60% of the land across those states.
The harmed caused by the Supreme Court decision is likely to be compounded by the incoming Trump administration, with its stated intention to pursue deregulation and dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency as well as U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation initiatives. Wetlands in Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa are particularly at risk of pollution and being converted to farmland because they have no state-level protections.
When sufficiently funded and effectively employed, USDA conservation programs can protect and restore wetlands. But time-tested USDA wetlands protection and restoration programs may face cuts from the incoming administration and Congress. The UCS report recommends the next food and farm bill strengthen wetland protections by
- increasing support for programs that help farmers restore damaged wetlands on their properties and convert cropland back into wetlands;
- increasing investments in agriculture practices that reduce runoff; and
- regulating agricultural pollution that damages wetlands.