Government, Developer Settle Dispute Over Michigan Wetlands

DETROIT, Dec. 29 -- A Michigan developer has reached a settlement with regulators in a decades-long dispute over wetlands and development in a case that landed before the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal government announced Monday.

John Rapanos and other defendants have agreed to pay a $150,000 penalty. The deal also requires him to construct 100 acres of wetlands and buffer areas in Midland and Arenac counties to make up for 54 acres that were filled in.

Separately, 134 acres will be preserved in Midland County, with the state of Michigan holding a conservation easement. The agreement was filed in federal court in Detroit and will be open to public comment for 30 days.

"We are pleased to reach a settlement that so strongly benefits the environment and serves the public interest," Assistant Attorney General Ronald J. Tenpas said in a statement.

Rapanos, 73, did not admit wrongdoing.

"Neither side walks away with everything they want," said his attorney, Arthur Siegal. "If they did, it wouldn't be a settlement."

Rapanos began tangling with regulators in the late 1980s as he attempted to develop houses and a shopping center. He filled in a portion of one property with sand, defying cease-and-desist orders and insisting it had no wetlands or none that were under federal jurisdiction.

The nearest navigable waterway is a Lake Huron tributary about 20 miles away, but regulators said adjacent ditches provided a direct surface link.

The government sued in 1994, accusing Rapanos of violating the Clean Water Act. A judge said that the government had jurisdiction over three of the six parcels and that the developer had filled in wetlands.

But the Supreme Court in 2006 sent the case back to Detroit for another look, saying regulators may have exceeded their authority in preventing Rapanos and another Michigan landowner from developing their properties.

That ruling ultimately led to the settlement.