In a 2006 case, the Supreme Court decided that wetlands next to navigable waterways would be protected under the Clean Water Act. But the justices didn’t agree on what to do about wetlands that aren't close to navigable waterways.
If the ruling goes the way the Dunleavy administration would like, the Environmental Protection Agency will no longer have oversight over pollution and contaminants in Alaska’s isolated wetlands. The State of Alaska will.
“If you look at the tundra habitat all along the coast and the marshes, there are thousands, and thousands, and thousands of little isolated wetlands,” said Boyd Blihovde, the refuge manager for the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses most of the Y-K region. In general, the EPA has been claiming jurisdiction over isolated wetlands and things like bodies of water that are dry part of the year. The State of Alaska is asking for the court to take a narrower view of the Clean Water Act.
The state says that it would rather build an “economical lagoon.” Sewage lagoons are among the cheapest available options to treat raw sewage, but they do come with risks. Recently, a sewage lagoon burst open in the Y-K Delta community of Hooper Bay, dumping the entirety of the town’s sewage into protected wetlands.“That’s why the refuge was established, because it’s good for waterfowl,” he said.
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