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THE FIRST POINT: "Wetland" is not well enough defined to be included in legislation. After years 

 of struggling among Federal agencies, the National Academy of Sciences is currently attempting to 

 define wetland. The reason for the struggle is that wetland is a concept, like maturity or 

 pornography, and cannot be described by scientists until society determines some ground rules. In 

 other words, wetlands are not out there waiting to be discovered, they exist only in how society 

 chooses to describe them. And, we haven't been able to describe them well enough yet to include 

 reference to wetland in legislation. 



Referring to wetland in nonpoint pollution legislation before it is well defined, gives subsequent 

 definers of wetland tremendous influence. The impacts of a definition on rural communities and 

 agriculture can be extremely wide ranging, depending on just how "wet" wetland is defined to be. 



In addition, social concepts differ among regions of the country and over time. Thus, including a 

 poorly defined concept, such as wetland, in legislation may mean that the impact will not be 

 consistent geographically and it may change as society's perception of what wetland is changes. 



THE SECOND POINT; Generalities about the values of wetlands are not sufficient evidence that 

 all wetlands are valuable for pollution control, nor that any wetland is more valuable than an 

 alternative. Wetlands are frequently touted as having high social values across a broad range of 



outputs. 



