EDF won a major victory in late 1983, when Congress reversed former Interior Secretary Watt's attempt to open vast areas of the National Wildlife Refuge System to oil and gas leasing. Placement of drilling rigs degrades refuges, and drilling accidents could do irreversible, long-term damage. EDF has been a leader in the long effort to reduce the loss of the nation's wetlands, defending Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, which requires the Army Corps of Engineers to regulate filling of wetlands. Lax enforcement of Section 404 can do irreversible damage to the environment. Wetlands serve as breeding and feeding grounds for thousands of species, many of them endangered.
Wetlands are also essential to a commercial and recreational fishing industry.
Moreover, these saturated lowlands play a critical role in purifying surface water as it trickles through to underground aquifers. EDF Wildlife and Water Program attorneys led an environmental lawsuit challenging 1982 Corps regulations that greatly weakened the Section 404 program. EDF and the Corps recently settled the suit, with the Corps accepting terms that promise to restore effective protection to wetlands. EDF also worked with Congress in 1983 to develop legislation for acquiring and preserving sensitive wetlands. At the same time, EDF laid the groundwork for strengthening Section 404 in the current struggle to reauthorize the Clean Water Act.