(CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Development and agriculture have sharply curtailed Illinois’ wetlands acreage, and a U.S. Supreme Court decision threatens what’s left, according to a University of Illinois study.

“The Sackett v. EPA decision required that wetlands have a continuous surface connection to ‘relatively permanent waters’ of the United States and be indistinguishable from those waters,” said doctoral student Chelsea Peterson, one of the leaders of the new research. Whereas Illinois had about 8 million acres of wetlands as recently as the 1980’s, the number is just under a million now, with only about 275,000 subject to federal protection.

“Wetlands store floodwaters during high precipitation events, and they slow down the transport of runoff from the uplands to the downstream waterways, and that prevents damage to infrastructure and agriculture and homes,” said Peterson.