Orange County is updating its wetlands protections

Orange County commissioners received an update on proposed changes to the county’s Wetland Conservation Areas Ordinance during a work session Tuesday.

The proposed changes are the result of approximately two years of work, according to Environmental Programs Administrator Tim Hull, who presented the latest information to commissioners Tuesday.

Wetlands help to enhance water quality and keep surface waters, like rivers, flowing strong; they also help absorb floodwaters, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

But in the last 200 years, Florida lost more than 9 million acres of wetlands — meaning it lost more wetlands, in acres, than any other state, according to a report published in 1990 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Still, Florida remains the state with the most wetlands, according to the agency.

Locally, Orange County lost 5.6% of its wetland acreage in the last thirty years, Hull said Tuesday, citing a recent study conducted as part of the process to revise the county’s Wetland Conservation Areas Ordinance.

Another step in the ongoing revision process was a regulatory framework study, which Hull said was conducted to determine how Orange County’s wetlands regulations compare to other counties’, as well as regulations set at the state and federal level.