Booming Davis County is finding its growth running up against some unyielding geographic and jurisdictional barriers.
To the east, the Wasatch Mountains loom. To the west, the Great Salt Lake blocks development, in most places only a few miles away.Within that ribbon of land separating developed portions of the county from Utah's inland sea are the wetlands, protected by the Federal Clean Water Act of 1977.
Municipal and county officials complain that their efforts to build a new commercial or residential tax base too often runs afoul of the shielded acreage.
But to environmentalists, those wetlands are a critical part of Utah's ecology.
"It's really been a hot political potato," said county environmental Director Richard Harvey. "It's one of these things that is a full conflict between property rights and the environment."
For all purposes, the larger wetlands along the Great Salt Lake are untouchable, said U.S. Army Corps of Engineers biologist Lesley McWhirter.
The corps has jurisdiction over the wetlands and until federal law changes, no one will build on that land, she said.
But while larger, more obvious areas along the lake are well-guarded, the smaller inland sites are tougher to identify and protect.
No one is sure how much of the inner wetlands has been swallowed by asphalt or pollution, McWhirter said, but they have been affected.
"Every once in a while you get these fly-by-night developers who start building before you know what's going on," McWhirter said.
But Barry Burton, a program manager for the Davis County Economic Development Office, said it is not always the developers' fault.
"One of our biggest problems is we have this `unknown' factor; we don't know what the corps is going to consider jurisdictional wetlands," he said.
Harvey does not see the need to worry about the smallest inland sites.
"To try to preserve a small piece of wetland in the middle of a community is not really an important thing," he said. "It doesn't have a viable chance, and it does little to support wildlife because of the amount of human activity."
McWhirter said the corps does not see it that way.
"Even the isolated ones can help in flood control, water storage, especially during high-water years," she said. "They are also still stopover places for migratory birds."
But county officials say Davis needs another major highway to relieve traffic. Not just for convenience, they say, but for safety.
The problem is the most apparent path for a new highway is west of I-15, running through several protected areas along the lake.