If passed, the measure would eliminate a 2003 law that requires the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to issue permits in a state-regulated wetland and end enforcement proceedings against landowners allegedly violating current law.

A controversial bill that would dissolve protections for the state's wetlands passed in the Senate on Monday.

The bill aims to help local governments cut costs by allowing them to fix or reconstruct a drain in a state wetland without a permit from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

A seemingly simple bill to help local governments cut costs when repairing drains is working its way through the state legislature. But environmentalists worry it could harm the states wetlands.

The Mitchell's satyr is a small brown butterfly that lives in high-quality wetlands fed by groundwater called fens or prairie fens.