Wetlands: Where will the water go without them?

Water, water everywhere — and what happens when there isn’t anywhere for it to go?

Floridians know (or ought to know) how crucial wetlands are for flood control, groundwater recharge, wildlife habitat and more. Nearly one-third of the state is wetlands, up to 14 million acres; and the health of these wetlands is crucial to Florida’s future, particularly as sea level rises and weather patterns like the looming “super” El Nino dump ever-more rain.

As such, Florida’s elected leaders must do all they can to protect wetlands. But instead, they’re doing the opposite.

Wetlands here and across the country are under unprecedented threat due to a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision; subsequent rulemaking and legislative proposals have upped the ante, putting up to 77 percent of Florida’s wetlands at risk.

The initial blow came when the Supreme Court, in its Sackett vs. EPA ruling, significantly weakened the definition of “Waters of the United States,” effectively stripping up to 70 million acres of wetlands nationwide of federal protections under the Clean Water Act.

Bad soon became worse. In December 2025 the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 3898, the PERMIT Act, an attempt to fast-track permits despite wetland impacts. Among other provisions, the bill excludes several types of water from federal protections, including ephemeral features which flow only after rain, groundwater, waste treatment systems and a few others.

That bill has not passed the Senate and may not this session. But the hits just keep on coming.

In the wake of Sackett the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are writing new rules to decide which waters get federal protections and which don’t. The process has been hugely controversial; Friends of the Everglades submitted a letter to the EPA and Department of the Army, arguing that the proposed rules precariously limit what counts as “Waters of the United States”.

The rules, we told the agencies, could have a huge impact on Everglades waters — many of which stand to lose federal protections.

Then came what could be the coup de grace. U.S. House Resolution 9017, the “Restore Florida’s Water Independence Act of 2026,” sponsored by Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, would codify state control of the federal 404. The feds previously gave Florida jurisdiction in late 2020, during the waning days of the first Trump Administration; environmentalists sued, arguing the move violated the Endangered Species Act. A federal judge — and later a federal appeals court — agreed that the program did not comply with the Endangered Species Act and returned authority to the Army Corps.

H.R. 9017 seeks to do an end run around the courts, without any attempt to protect endangered species, and once again have the state take over to fast-track permits. Unfortunately, speed will come at a cost; more wetlands filled in more quickly, more wildlife — including endangered species — harmed.

All this raises a very simple yet terrifying question: Where will the water go, if we destroy all these wetlands? If not wetlands, where?

Yet elected officials continue to rush headlong into this unknown. At the state level, legislative proposals in recent years sought to prohibit local communities from enacting wetland regulations; expand wetland mitigation banking by allowing developers to offset the harm inflicted by their project in one watershed by allowing them to buy “credits” generated in other watersheds. And with powerful legislators continuing to push pro-growth bills, our wetlands are destined to feel the impact.

A key argument for those who would scuttle federal wetland protections is that the states can do a better job. So will Florida’s wetland protections be enough to safeguard this precious resource as the federal government steps back?

If not, our waters may be at our doorsteps, instead of in wetlands where they belong.

This update is part of an advocacy series:
Everglades Unfiltered: Straight talk about water, wildlife and wild places — and the forces that impact them.