SC House Rejects Wetland Plan One Hour Before Bush Speech

[hatrack]

COLUMBIA - On Earth Day, the state House overwhelmingly voted down proposed state regulations for isolated wetland. Less than an hour later, President Bush made an Earth Day speech urging states to preserve more wetland.

The regulations, proposed by the Department of Health and Environmental Control, would replace former federal regulation of isolated wetland that ended almost three years ago after the U.S. Supreme Court said the federal government did not have the right to regulate them.

Isolated wetland are those not connected to navigable surface waters such as rivers. They are common in the coastal regions of South Carolina.

Rep. Billy Witherspoon, R-Conway, asked colleagues to reject the regulations.

"We have studied this very carefully," said Witherspoon, chairman of the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee. The proposal "gives too much authority to the department" by having it determine whether an isolated wetland is significant or insignificant but without describing how that would be determined."

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http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/8515891.htm

[blindpig]

1. shameless whores

the Carolina coastal plain, one of my all time favorite habitats, is being turned into a strip mall/golf course.Local government in SC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the real estate bastards. So many places that I have spent time observing wildlife are history.......don't get me started. If a hundred year storm gave Hilton Head back to the gators I'd dance a little jig of sorrow.....