The dots signal him to zoom in to see, for example, if a parking
lot now sits on former marshland. Such skills have transformed him
and his agency into a nemesis to those who illegally bulldoze
wetlands. Often, he tracks and catches them by surprise - even years
after their dirty deed.
The first state in the nation to use such technology for wetlands
enforcement, Massachusetts is blazing a trail that other states -
and even national environmental groups - are likely to follow. The
system is relatively affordable and far more comprehensive than
relying on tips phoned in by citizens. And in the case of
Massachusetts, despite deep cuts in the state budget, the new
"smoking gun" photographic evidence is allowing it to flex its
enforcement muscle - and bring cash into state coffers at the same
time.
Massachusetts' advance also comes at a critical moment as
political will to protect the nation's wetlands seems at a tipping
point. After uncertainty and slippage in enforcement following a
2001 US Supreme Court ruling, observers say, the US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) last month affirmed its commitment to
enforce the Clean Water Act with respect to certain "isolated"
wetlands. Pressure is also rising on state and federal agencies like
the EPA to demonstrate their effectiveness in dollars, observers
say. Wetlands managers will attend a federal conference in March to
discuss new cost-effective techniques for monitoring wetlands and
enforcing protection laws.
"This is the kind of enforcement tool we've needed," says Robert
Golledge Jr., commissioner of the Massachusetts DEP. "Photographs
like these are very clear to a jury - it's easy for them to see
what's been done."
Sometimes, the data are shocking. Massachusetts officials were
aghast to find that more than 3,000 locations had been filled
between 1991 and 2001 - a net loss of more than 700 acres of
wetlands that they previously had not known about. At least half of
those locations involved illegal actions, officials say. It was a
rude awakening for a state that had prided itself on a tough permit
system designed for "no net loss" of a single acre of wetlands.
"Many of these places are way back, deep in the woods, where
these people think nobody will see," says Cynthia Giles, assistant
commissioner of the Massachusetts DEP. "Now they'll know we're out
there, and we can find them."
Model for other states
By becoming first in the nation to digitize its aerial maps of
the state, then link them to a computer database for wetlands
protection, Massachusetts has dramatically raised the level of
detection and lowered the costs of enforcement. The DEP's sharp
before-and-after photos are more convincing to juries than paper
maps, officials say. It's an innovation that has suddenly given
wetlands regulators sharper teeth.
On Dec. 10 Costello's efforts paid off when his agency announced
fines totaling $280,000 against two companies: an auto parts company
and a concrete company, accused of filling three acres of wetlands.
More such actions are on the way.
The eye in the sky not only catches past scofflaws, it may slow
further losses of wetlands as potential violators realize their
chances of being caught are high, says Mr. Golledge of the DEP.
That's a big change. Not long ago getting such evidence was a
costly process involving many man hours scanning photographs with
little certainty of a conviction or settlement.
Wetlands are already federally protected under the Clean Water
Act of 1977, which recognized swamps, bogs, and wet forests for
their key ecological roles as wildlife habitats and giant sponges,
absorbing pollutants and minimizing flooding by sopping up heavy
rains.
And environmentalists cheered the Dec. 16 announcement by EPA
head Michael Leavitt that it would drop plans to remove millions of
acres of wetlands from federal protection. These so-called
"isolated" wetlands had been made legally vulnerable following a
2001 Supreme Court ruling that weakened protections, advocates
say.
Loss of wetlands
But enforcement has been a problem ever since the Clean Water Act
of 1977 protected inglorious mud flats, eel-grass beds, squishy
forest, and other mushy, water-soaked terrain.
Between 1986 and 1997, the lower 48 states have seen a net loss
of 644,000 acres of wetlands, according to the US Fish and Wildlife
Service. That loss rate slowed to an estimated 58,500 acres
annually, the service reported five years ago. But the latter rate
may be higher.
Massachusetts' experience is telling, says Eric Schaeffer, former
director of the EPA's civil-enforcement program and now director of
the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project. He asks: If that
state, with its tough protections, still finds hundreds of acres
illegally filled, what might be happening in the two-thirds of
states that don't even have wetlands regulations?
The official rate of wetlands loss "is a significant
understatement," Mr. Schaeffer says. "What's the real loss rate? We
need to know that. This sort of digital database analysis is
something the Bush administration should be doing."
Indeed, the larger significance of what Massachusetts has
demonstrated may lie ahead. If states, for whatever reason, decide
not to protect wetlands, the new technology has made it affordable
enough for environmental groups or other nongovernmental
organizations to monitor compliance. Only 16 states have their own
wetlands protection laws. The others rely on the US Army Corps of
Engineers for enforcement.
"It's a great idea," says Tim Serchinger, an attorney with
Environmental Defense in Washington. "I've been thinking about this
for several years. There's no question this is the way to do wetland
enforcement. I'm really impressed they're doing this."
"I can't tell you how excited I am about this," adds Jay Taylor,
president of Wetlands Watch, a Virginia environmental group.
"Regulation and enforcement have been cut, so we know many acres of
wetlands are being destroyed under the table. This approach would
level the playing field. It's just the kind of thing an organization
like ours could make use of" - especially given its declining
costs.
Virginia already has digitized wetlands maps, part of the
National Wetlands Inventory conducted by the US Fish and Wildlife
Service. And those older maps could be compared to newer aerial or
satellite photos and contrasted using the high-tech software on
nothing more expensive than a robust personal computer, Costello
points out.
