PEER, or the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility is a watchdog group that protects whistleblowers and attempts to insure that conscientious regulators in environmental agencies are allowed to do their jobs. Last month, PEER released an internal directive issued by senior Environmental Protection Agency officials that will significantly limit regulators abilities to challenge wetlands dredge-and-fill permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers.

According to PEER, the directive mandates that every EPA protest, however preliminary, that is sent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requires prior approval from EPA Headquarters.

“This new policy puts the final decision in the hands of officials who have never seen the land in question and whose principal interest is political rather than environmental,” said New England PEER director, Kyla Bennett, a biologist and attorney who used to work for the EPA’s wetlands program.

Under a 1992 interagency agreement between EPA and the Corps, the EPA regional wetland program must notify the Corps district office during the public notice period when it believes a proposed permit may violate the wetland protections of the Clean Water Act. This preliminary warning is called a “3(a) letter.” Typically, this type of letter is sent directly from the wetlands program staff without input from the Regional Administrator, but each EPA Region has its own practice. If the Corps proceeds with the permit despite the 3(a) letter, the Regional Administrator can send what is called a “3(b) letter” to the Corps District Engineer stating that EPA believes the proposed project will have a substantial and unacceptable impact to aquatic resources of national importance. If the Corps decides to issue the permit anyway, despite the 3(b) letter, it must send a draft copy of the permit to the EPA. At that point the EPA Regional Office can “elevate” the permit dispute to EPA Headquarters. This elevation step has occurred only 18 times in the history of the program. But by comparison, the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service, which enjoys similar powers, has never elevated a wetlands destruction permit.

“As a result of this new EPA policy, even feeble checks on abuses by the Corps will be quashed,” Bennett concluded.