Army Corps, EPA Revise Wetlands Guidelines

摘要

Responding to a two-year-old decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to limit the federal government's jurisdiction over certain types of wetlands, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on January 10 that they intend to revisit their wetlands regulations to clarify which types of wetlands are afforded protection under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The two agencies also jointly issued guidelines to their field staffs on when they should and should not assert jurisdiction over "isolated waters," the legal term for wetlands not adjacent to navigable waterways or their tributaries and wholly contained within a single state.