"property rights" bill in the last Congress which would have redefined property interests regulated under the Clean Water Act would have cost taxpayers upwards of $10 billion. Conservatively, it is fair to conclude that the Title IX would impose hundreds of billions of new costs on the federal taxpayer.

Title IX are based on the extreme philosophy that citizens and their elected representatives have no role in regulating private property to protect neighboring property owners, the community, the natural environment. or future generations. These bills would actually undermine the property rights of a majority of Americans. Zoning laws, environmental regulations, and restrictions on the siting of new industry protect the property values of 65 million American homeowners. The value of a family's home is largely dependent on the health and attractiveness of the surrounding community. If the enforcement of basic laws that homeowners rely on to protect their property values were saddled with enormous new costs. homeowners would see their property values go down. By contrast, the relative handful of wealthy corporations and individuals who own the lion's share of undeveloped land in this country would benefit handsomely from Title IX.

Action in 1995

Congress should reject any and all property rights legislation or amendments and rely on the 5th Amendment of the Constitution, which has effectively and fairly dealt with legitimate government takings for more than two centuries.

contributing tens of billions of dollars

and hundreds of thousands of jobs to the national economy each year. The cost of destroying wetlands includes not only the elimination of these benefits, but the outlay of substantial expenditures to pay for the replication of the functions a natural wetlands system provides.

The presence of water gives wetland areas remarkable biological productivity. Many species of migratory waterfowl, wading birds, and songbirds depend on wetlands for their existence. Seventy percent of commercially important fish and shellfish species use wetlands as nursery and spawning grounds. An estimated 43% of all endangered species spend part of their lives in wetland habitat. Additionally, wetlands absorb and store water after heavy rains, lowering flood levels and reducing flood damage; purify our nation's water supply by capturing pollutants and excessive nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen; absorb impacts of storm surges thereby stabilizing fragile coastlines during major storm events; and naturally recharge our fresh water supply in groundwater reserves. More and more communities are looking to local wetlands as a source of sewage or other water pollution treatment, and state and federal agencies are now recreating riverine wetlands that were destroyed along the Mississippi River as natural flood barriers for the future.

At the time of European settlement, there were approximately 220 million acres of wetlands in the contiguous United States. More than half of those wetlands have since been destroyed or degraded by filling, drainage, dredg

ing, erosion and pollution. As increasing numbers of wetlands are lost- up to 290,000 acres each year - those that remain have taken on additional value.

The Economics of Wetlands

The economic activity related to wetlands generates at least $72 billion annually and almost one million jobs, according to a study commissioned by National Audubon Society in April the 1994.

Expenditures on wetland-related recreation alone totaled an estimated $22.8 billion in 1991; related jobs total over 750,000. These numbers include the indirect and induced economic impacts of annual expenditures from our nation's 18 million recreational hunters, 35 million anglers and the 30 million Americans who enjoy wildlife viewing and photography. In each case, the activities were generated by wildlife that depends on wetlands habitat for at least part of its life cycle.

The abundance of wildlife produced by natural wetland conditions also contributes to another vital source of the American economy: commercial trapping and fishing. Nearly $2 billion is paid at landing for fish and shellfish and $10 million is generated in trapped animal furs from species dependent on wetlands each year. These two activities employ an estimated 210,000 people as commercial fishers and trappers. Logging of the low-value tree species specific to wetlands generated over $1 billion in total economic activity in 1991.

Perhaps most important of all the economic aspects involving wetlands is the cost of replicating the functions they provide once a wetland as been destroyed. If the nation's remaining wetlands were to be destroyed,

AN ECONOMIC

INVESTMENT

As the Congress takes up reauthorization of the Clean Water Act, we believe it should adhere to national standards and retain oversight over wetlands programs. Passing the 404 program back to the states is likely to speed wetlands destruction because the states do not have the resources to implement wetlands oversight adequately. We encourage Congress to design pilot programs to test alternative methods of protecting wetlands, such as mitigation banking or small landowner permit streamlining, but we caution the Congress against radical weakening of an already inadequate national wetlands protection program. The national economic and natural resource values at stake are enormous.

Action in 1995

Clean Water Act reauthorization should include the following components:

Wetlands protection and restoration as an explicit goal of the Clean Water Act: