Wetlands are better than wet underwear.

Or in Druidese,

Which would you like, a nice wetland or wet underwear?

Easy that, we would like a nice wetland, but we, like you, usually wind up with wet underwear, anyway.

All that aside, you can read a very good history of “Wetland Protection Legislation” at http://water.USGS.gov/WSP2425/legislation.html

Some of the actual facts are left off of that site though. The bottom line is that the only limit on development in wetlands these days is cost versus profit (usually the public’s cost and private or corporate profit). Legislation designed to identify and protect wetlands and enforcement of the relevant laws has been very effectively negated by:

1) reversion to the 1987 delineation manual in 1991
2) under-funding and misdirected funding for wetland science
3) down- sizing and out-sourcing at the responsible federal and state agencies
4) substitution of politically motivated opinion for science (ex. The National List of Plant Species that Occur in Wetlands)
5) appointment of the regulated and their relatives and golf buddies to oversight positions in the regulatory agencies
6) widespread lying and gluttony