Pass SB 9 — Protect Delaware's Nontidal Wetlands.

I am writing to urge you to vote YES on Senate Bill 9 — the Wetlands Stewardship Act — when it reaches the House floor. SB 9 would close a regulatory gap that has put roughly 75,000 acres of Delaware wetland — about a quarter of our remaining freshwater wetland — outside both federal and state protection. The U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 Sackett v. EPA decision narrowed federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act, removing protection from most of our forested wet woods, Delmarva bays, sea-level fens, and cedar swamps. Delaware's own Wetlands Act covers tidal wetlands but reaches only those nontidal wetlands of 400 contiguous acres or more — a threshold that excludes nearly every nontidal wetland Delaware has left. SB 9 would close that gap at the state level. What is notable about SB 9 is the coalition supporting it. Environmental groups, including The Nature Conservancy in Delaware, Sierra Club Delaware, and the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays, stand alongside the Home Builders Association of Delaware, DNREC, and individual farmers, including a fourth-generation Sussex County turf-grass farmer. DNREC's own 2026-2030 Delaware Wetland Program Plan, released in May, explicitly names the bill. SB 9 is sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Stephanie Hansen and was co-sponsored across party lines, with Sen. Eric Buckson (R) joining six Democratic senators. It passed the Senate unanimously on June 10, 2026 — 20-0 with one absent. That is a degree of agreement Delaware land-use legislation rarely achieves. SB 9 is also a measured bill. It does not override local zoning. It includes exemptions for ongoing agricultural operations, permitted forestry, small wetlands certified by qualified professionals, and routine agricultural drainage maintenance. It defers consequential rulemaking to a stakeholder Wetland Regulatory Advisory Committee, with initial regulations targeted for August 2027. SB 9 creates a framework Delaware can implement carefully — not an immediate expansion of permitting. Our nontidal wetlands hold floodwater before it reaches our homes. They filter our drinking water. They shelter native species that are part of what makes Delaware what it is. SB 9 would give the state the legal foundation to keep them. I respectfully urge you to vote YES on Senate Bill 9 when it reaches the House floor. Thank you for your service.