Thread by @ArielWittenberg

Sooo, remember that #WOTUS data that EPA said was completely unreliable and reporters shouldn't use it?

Turns out the Army Corps does. To figure out which wetlands to protect.

@HMNorthey and I have the receipts.

eenews.net/stories/106371…

In case you're wondering, no, I'm not back on the water beat--that's still in Hannah's very capable hands. But let's do one last #WOTUS thread for the road...

Two years ago @KevinBogardus and I got back the most well-timed FOIA of our lives showing that EPA had reviewed federal data showing Trump #WOTUS would eliminate federal protections for 18 percent of streams and more than half of the nation’s wetlands.

That came after EPA initially claimed there was “no data” that could be used to figure out the scope of their rollback. eenews.net/stories/106010…

To be clear, no one thinks the data is perfect, but it’s the best we have to inform us on how big of a rollback this rule is. And if anything it *underestimates* the number of wetlands and steams that are no longer regulated under Trump #WOTUS

But, for the past two years EPA has continued to insist that this data is not useable. David Ross told Congress it isn’t good enough. EPA slammed reporters for using it when the #WOTUS rule was finalized, too. eenews.net/eedaily/storie…

A month ago, @HMNorthey and I read a story from @amenasaiyid about how the corps wasn't going to the field to figure out if individual wetlands should be protected. Employees were doing it from their desks. Made us wonder how they were making decisions. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-an…

So we looked at more than 1,000 of these jurisdictional determinations issued under the new rule, and guess what? Two-thirds of them are using the so-called “unreliable” wetlands data and 9 percent are using the “unreliable” stream data.

What’s more, we talked to experts who say that while using these federal databases is OK for broad-stroked estimates, they are actually *more* unreliable when you use them for making jurisdictional decisions about individual aquatic resources.

That’s because where they place an individual wetland or stream might be a bit off. Not a big deal for a nationwide estimate, but if a developer is trying to figure out where they can build, that matters.

Here’s an example from my #WOTUS in the West series last year. The yellow and green in the map on the left are of NWI and state-level remote wetlands maps. The right shows a map drawn by the corps after a site visit. Big difference eenews.net/special_report…