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That’s because West Virginia has lost most of its wetlands, which are critical to preserving clean waterways and safe drinking water, in a state with many of the country’s highest rates of federal drinking water violations.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of the Army will hold back-to-back listening sessions Wednesday afternoon at the Kanawha County Courthouse on their plan to water down a rule that governs what waters are protected under the Clean Water Act.

The plan, if approved, would subject an increased amount of wetlands to negative environmental effects of industrial and agricultural development.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has estimated West Virginia has lost 80% to 90% of its wetlands, far more than the national share lost.

Wetlands make up only 1% of West Virginia’s land surface but are critical habitat for nearly a quarter of its species and 44% of its rare plant species, the DEP has reported.

Wetlands purify water and retain floodwater, impacts that come in handy in West Virginia given its disproportionately poor water quality and flood-prone topography.

More than half of West Virginia’s critical infrastructure — including fire, police and power stations — was at risk of becoming inoperable due to flooding, according to a 2021 . West Virginia’s share of critical infrastructure at risk of being inoperable due to flooding was higher than any other state.

Of West Virginia’s 831 public water systems, 622 — 74.8% — had violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act in 2023, according to Environmental Protection Agency data, dwarfing the national average of 27.6%. West Virginia’s percentage of public water systems with drinking water violations was 18.5 percentage points higher than that of the second-highest state, Oklahoma, at 56.1%.

Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended a requirement of no net loss of wetlands and development and implementation of enhanced wetland conservation and management approaches.

The Fish and Wildlife Service found that net wetland loss during a 2009-2019 study period had increased more than 50% since the last study period from 2004 to 2009, extending a long-term pattern of wetland loss.

How feds plan to weaken the rule

The feds plan to rescind guidance that assumed a “discrete feature� like a nonjurisdictional ditch, swale, pipe or culvert establishes a “continuous surface connection� that triggers the rule, known as the “Waters of the United States� or “WOTUS� rule.

Wiping out consideration of “discrete features� to find a “continuous surface connection� would further limit the scope of the Clean Water Act.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced in March the agencies plan to revise the definition of WOTUS in line with a 2023 Supreme Court decision that favored a narrower test to determine whether the Clean Water Act applies to a wetland.

But the agencies already narrowed WOTUS wetland protections that year following the court’s decision, removing what’s been known as the “significant nexus� test from consideration when identifying tributaries and other waters as federally protected. That move disappointed proponents of less-stringent wetlands oversight and environmental advocates who feared it would be a major blow to clean water.

Listening session details

EPA Region 3 Administrator Amy Van Blarcom-Lackey, EPA Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water Peggy Browne and EPA Division Director of the Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds Stacey Jensen will attend Wednesday’s listening sessions, per a agency news release.

The EPA and Army listening stop is intended to help the agencies “understand real-world perspectives and experiences with WOTUS implementation,� the EPA said in the release.