I am grateful to the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce for hosting the Third House Session, reviewing the Indiana legislature’s work thus far. And I’m grateful for the Times-Union’s coverage of the event (covered in the February 27–28 edition).
However, I want to call out clearly and loudly the lies that Senator Blake Doriot told in the course of that meeting, regarding SB 389, which repeals Indiana’s existing legislation governing wetlands (marshes, swamps). Mr. Doriot said: “I really want to get this straight because my duck-hunting buddies and all that are angry with me, and we are not touching the wetlands like you would see around Lake Wawasee and the lakes and along streams. Those are off-limits federally.” This much is true: Indiana cannot do anything about those wetlands, because they are federally regulated.
Existing Indiana law – the law that SB 389 is designed to repeal – governs what are called “isolated wetlands” – that is, wetlands not connected to a lake or stream directly. “Isolated wetlands” can be quite small or quite large; any swamp or marsh not connected with a lake or a stream is thus under Indiana law, not federal law. If you drive to Fort Wayne on U.S. 30, you’ll see quite a few of these wetlands; they’re common in our county, and there are least two within a mile of our house. The Indiana law passed in 2017 was intended to protect roughly 80% of the wetlands in the state, and eliminating all protection of these wetlands seems to be the goal that our local legislators are united around. Ducks, along with much other wildlife, do use these wetlands. Wetlands also are essential in mitigating flooding.
Here’s where Mr. Doriot’s lie comes to the surface. He claims: “[I]f you have a farmer and have an acre that’s had a broken tile and it’s turned into a wetland, you go to fix that tile, IDEM comes in there saying that, ‘Well, you’ve done this and now you must mitigate up to 4 acres for 1 acre and up to a cost of $40,000 an acre.’” This is false, completely false. That is, the law passed in 2017 does not restrict a farmer from fixing a broken tile; in fact, ongoing agriculture is not prohibited from this sort of activity and is in fact part of the list of exceptions from the mitigation that Mr. Doriot claims is required. The appendix to the law stipulating these exceptions can be found at: IC 13-11-2-74.5 Section 2(C).
This leads me to believe that Mr. Doriot cannot be trusted; surely he knows that his presentation of the information about this law at the Chamber’s session is false. I’m disappointed that no other local legislator called him on his lie.
The bill has passed the Senate; so I urge all citizens to call your representative (Snow, Nisly or Donato) to vote this damaging bill down in the House.
