Understand the 2023 Sackett v. EPA ruling and how to review disputed wetlands in Transect.
The 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Sackett v. EPA significantly impacted the definition of federally protected wetlands, creating uncertainty for developers. Transect has proactively addressed this change by introducing the "Disputed Wetlands" feature. This innovative tool leverages advanced algorithms to identify potential wetlands that may no longer fall under federal protection based on the new definition of protected wetlands under the CWA.
Key Features
Transect Reports containing wetlands with disputed protection status will display the following information:
- An alert in the Waters section of the Executive Summary card advising that their AOI intersects a Disputed Wetland.
- At the top of the Executive Summary, the Report Map includes a layer for “Disputed Wetlands” that shows features with protection status under dispute.
Defining Disputed Wetlands
Transect considers a wetland "non-disputed" if it meets one of the following criteria:
- The wetland is directly connected to any navigable water.
- The wetland is adjacent to or connected to any non-disputed water identified in criterion #1.
Wetland features (NWI) that do not intersect hydrography (NHD) features (perennial, intermittent, or artificial paths) are identified and marked as "disputed."
Resources
*Disputed Wetlands still await official definitions from EPA and the United States Army Corp of Engineers.