LISTEN to a radio interview with David Jenkins, President of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship. In the interview, Jenkins makes the case for why taxpayers should support the rule, which reasserts the scope of the Clean Water Act and the protection of wetlands.

Predictably, development interests are howling in opposition to the change.

Here’s more information to put this story into context:

Wetlands protect against drought, replenish underground water supplies, and maintain water quality; however, when they are destroyed, taxpayers like YOU must help foot the bill to fund new infrastructure. This includes replacing services – such as stormwater-diversion channels, sewer systems and dams – that wetlands provide for FREE all over the United States.

This means that Charles County’s 26,686 acres of tidal and nontidal wetlands continually contribute to the county’s bottom line – although there are talking heads in the pro-sprawl development lobby who want you to believe otherwise.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), as one example, estimates that it will cost nearly $2 trillion to adequately maintain the nation’s existing flood-control measures and waste-water and drinking-water infrastructure over the next two decades. So therefore, keeping wetlands intact benefits communities.

For more information about Conservatives For Responsible Stewardship, visit: http://www.conservativestewards.org/

Video and audio pieces for We Make It News are produced by Tobin Communications.