"Army Corps Banks On Wetland Data EPA Deemed 'Unreliable'"

"When the Trump administration finalized a key Clean Water Act rule last year, it slammed media outlets for citing federal data showing it would erase protections for more than half the nation's wetlands and 18% of streams.

The National Wetlands Inventory, EPA wrote in a press release at the time, was so unreliable that it "doesn't map wetlands that are there and maps wetlands that are no longer there."

"Most importantly, it doesn't map the jurisdictional waters," EPA wrote in a press release specifically criticizing articles from E&E News, Politico, the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian.

Ten months later, it appears the Army Corps of Engineers didn't get that memo."

Ariel Wittenberg and Hannah Northey reports for E&E News October 28, 2020.