Editorial: Preserve Hard-Won Environmental Protections

11/22/2025 – The EPA announced new interpretations of rules this week that have protected wetlands and water quality throughout America for more than five decades. According to the New York Times, the new guidelines could remove millions of acres of wetlands from Federal protection including those in the Lake Houston Area.

Those wetlands help soak up water, reducing flood risk. They also clean water and provide habitat for wildlife. And that’s a large part of what makes living in this area so attractive.

Before the EPA

Those of us old enough to remember a time before the EPA can remember the stinking, fetid, poisonous messes our rivers and lakes had become. The Cuyahoga River near where I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, had caught on fire 13 times before the EPA was formed. It was a testament to the failure of local governments to withstand industry pressures.

We had reached a tipping point. That’s why in 1970, Congress formed the EPA – to set national standards that protected the environment.

But this week, Washington moved to weaken the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act, two bedrock laws of environmental protection. The moves come as part of a broader deregulatory effort.

Ironically, the announced motive for the federal government getting out of the wetlands-protection business was to return authority for that to the states. That theory proved ineffective decades ago. But almost two thirds of Americans alive today, weren’t even born in 1970.

The regulatory vacuum left by the Federal government will open up a window for wetlands exploitation before the Texas legislature meets again for two more years. Developers are already lined up waiting to develop wetlands in the Lake Houston Area. Yesterday, I posted about Scarborough, Holley and Signorelli.

You can bet this will trigger a “swamp rush” among developers who see the opportunity to buy low and sell high. Unfortunately, we’ve seen over and over again, how wetlands tend to be in areas that flood. It will only be a matter of time before they do.

And then all those homes sold to unsuspecting couples – who were promised that their homes met all government requirements – will be left holding a soggy title to a home they will have trouble selling for dimes on the dollar.

Clearly, the pendulum has swung back in the other direction already.

The Houston Chronicle recently documented 65,000 homes built in Houston-area floodplains since Hurricane Harvey. How soon people have forgotten! We are witnessing another disaster in the making – one that could be even harder to recover from next time.

But the changes aren’t a done deal yet. America still has a choice.

Speak Up, Speak Out

Fight back. Make your voice heard. Make sure you register your opinion about the threat to wetlands here. And write your Federal representatives. Make this an election issue.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 11/22/2025

3007 Days since Hurricane Harvey

The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.