A wetland protected Doris Wilson's property for 21 years, but until her house flooded, she didn't know what a wetland really was. Later that year, she noticed that her yard was always full of water, even when it hadn't rained. The problem got progressively worse until a heavy rainstorm in March 1997 flooded her basement and covered her entire front yard. Wilson and her son had to move out of their home for a month while their basement was repaired and their furnace replaced. The basement continues to flood periodically, and her insurance deductible has soared.
Wetlands truly do protect our homes.
An acre of wetlands can store up to 1.6 million gallons of floodwater. Nonetheless, from 1988 to 1996, the Army Corps of Engineers approved 99 percent of the applications for wetland-development permits. This type of permit allowed isolated wetlands of up to ten acres to be destroyed with no public notice or environmental review. Meanwhile, the White House has proposed new guidelines for federal construction along rivers, coastlines, and wetlands. Under the guidelines, the Army Corps and other federal agencies would have to assess the potential environmental damages before going ahead with levees, dams, and other water projects.