Water is gathering amongst the trees of the Wetland Wetland Mitigation Bank, which had been restored as farmland, near the Lusa Hatchee River in Shelby County, Tennessee on March 11, 2025.
Tennessee’s estimated 80% bill reduction rules for non-intensified wetlands will be heading to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk on Monday after approval from the General Assembly.
Rep. Kevin Vaughn and Senator Brent Taylor, sponsors of the bill’s West Tennessee Republican, said the law would remove troublesome and subjective mitigation requirements for landowners and developers.
Environmental advocates and scientists said the law paves the way for the destruction of Tennessee’s natural resources.
The bill passed 71-21, passing one abstention in the House and 25-6 in the Senate.
Since the 1970s, Tennessee’s wetland regulations have required developers and landowners to seek permission from the state before they can discharge or modify the wetland. The swamp area hosts a variety of species, absorbs rainwater, penetrates groundwater tables, and charges aquifers. To change the wetlands, developers had to pay for mitigation. This is an effort to preserve or restore other nearby wetlands.
(Flood) is the constant we deal with, and these two things are related… and (Senator Brent Taylor) says (actually something important) as “wet stains.”
– Senator Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville
Vaughan and Taylor laws scrap the automatic mitigation requirements for most of Tennessee’s isolated wetlands that do not have surface connections to navigable rivers or lakes. Federal law calls for the relaxation of those large waters, but a 2023 Supreme Court decision removed isolated wetlands from federal control, leaving the regulations in full for the state.
Sen. Page, a West Tennessee Republican who helped shape the law, said his district includes Swampland.
“The land in that very agriculturally rich area is flat, flooding, full of various wonderful wetlands, but things change…and the state has been given the authority to start monitoring it,” Wally said Monday.
The Southern Environmental Law Centre estimates that the law axes development rules Up to 80% of isolated swamps in Tennessee.
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Recent modeling commissioned by the Tennessee Department of Environmental Protection (TDEC) shows that most of the state’s isolated west of Tennessee are located in west Tennessee.
More than 30,000 acres of isolated wetlands fall on the northwest corner of the state. Historic level of water has flooded After a severe storm caused generational floods earlier this month.
Nashville Democrat Jeff Yalbro grew up in Dyersburg, one of several towns in West Tennessee where flooding occurred.
“(Flood) is the constant we’re dealing with, and these two things are related… And “Senator Taylor) says (that’s actually important” as ‘wet stains’,” Jablo said. “The study reveals that it’s these small wetlands that actually reduce peak flood levels in the community.”
The Senate refused to attempt Sen. Heidi Campbell to add a two-year sunset provision to the law and amendments to bring the law in line with the recommendations presented by TDEC in 2024.
New Wetland Regulations
The sponsor initially planned to eliminate all state regulations for isolated wetlands, consistent with federal law.
Wetland Conservation has built an industry for mitigation banks. A rollback can erode it.
Instead, the law defines four types of isolated wetlands, each with a regulatory threshold.
A new category of artificial wetlands are wetlands that have been intentionally or carelessly created by human and beaver changes. Developers can drain and fill this type of wetland without regulatory oversight.
No permits or mitigation is required for changing low-quality isolated wetlands up to accompaniment or medium-quality wetlands up to a quarter of an acre.
These wetlands have a minimum or moderate role in ecosystems, natural water cycles and chemical cycles according to the law. The exact definition of wetland quality is created through a rulemaking process that includes opportunities for public input.
Low-quality isolated wetlands of 1-2 acre size require general permission and 1-1 relaxation. To change a medium-quality, quarter-acre acre of 2 acres of medium-quality, isolated wetlands, a general permit with ease at a 1-1 ratio is required (up to 2-1 on two acres).
Changes to high quality isolated wetlands continue to require more specialized aquatic resource change permissions from the state and mitigation to transform into isolated wetlands of more than two acres of low and moderate quality.
About 80% of Tennessee’s isolated wetlands are smaller than an acre, according to George Nolan, director of Selc Tennessee. Approximately 94% of isolated wetlands are less than two acres.
The legislation also prevents TDEC from considering isolated wetlands of quality when determining the cumulative impact of the project, even if the project covers other federally regulated wetlands.
The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Tennessee home builders supported the law. Pacific Legal FoundationA national corporation that fought in the US Supreme Court in 2023 to deregulate American wetlands. They said the change would support property rights and reduce developer costs.
Several environmental groups, scientists, and companies that recover wetlands and sell mitigation credits to developers have opposed the law and warned that clauses that ignore cumulative effects could exceed the destruction of wetlands; It hinders the industry This has invested more than $1 billion in Tennessee restoration and conservation projects.
Vaughn said he views the easing requirements as “trampling on people’s private property rights.”
“I might own property because someone else says there’s something in their property and they say it’s worth the resource they have to pay to a third party to use their property.
Rep. Justin Pearson, a Memphis Democrat, voted against the bill.
“If these changes are made to improve the environment, if they are made to improve the quality of life for people in Tennessee, that’s one thing,” Pearson said. “But if we can change the protection of natural resources on behalf of corporate institutions to make more profits, I have a serious problem with it.”
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