Their proposal could trump a plan that Gov. Bob Taft is considering to protect what's left of swampy areas that once dotted the state and provide natural flood control, filter pollution and act as habitats for birds and other wildlife. At the behest of state environmental regulators, Taft might issue emergency rules requiring state permits for landlocked wetlands, swamps, bogs and mud flats that lost federal protection under a decision the U.S. Supreme Court handed down earlier this year. The permits would preserve a state policy that requires developers to create new wetlands to replace environmentally sensitive areas that were destroyed during the construction of housing subdivisions, shopping malls and roads. Home builders and other developers contend the governor doesn't have authority to issue the rules. People went through the ceiling when they heard what the governor was considering,'' Vince Squillace, a lobbyist for the Ohio Home Builders Association, said yesterday.
Some lawmakers agree.
They are urging the governor's office to proceed cautiously. I don't want the state to set in stone some policy that hasn't been well thought out,'' said Rep. Stephen Buehrer, a Delta Republican and top lieutenant to House Speaker Larry Householder. A draft of the rules that Taft is considering would cover any isolated wetlands subject to national permits before Jan. 9, the date of the U.S. Supreme Court decision. The high court ruled that wetlands aren't protected under the federal Clean Water Act unless they drain into navigable waters. The 5-4 decision by the court's conservative majority echoed developers, ranchers and farm groups that had accused federal officials of illegally regulating private lands.