This is the 50th straight year of uncertainty regarding the meaning of the term WOTUS, which governs when a federal permit is necessary to dredge within, fill, or discharge regulated
pollutants into a federal receiving water. The confusion bedeviling the Clean Water Act (the Act), 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq., has reigned for almost as long as Queen Elizabeth. In 1972, Congress added pollution regulation to the historic federal mission of maintaining navigability- in-fact, creating the modern version of the Act. In its wisdom, infinite or otherwise, Congress did not clarify which waters were subject to federal regulation, but merely said that the traditional term “navigable waters,” defined in 33 U.S.C. § 1362 (7), would henceforth mean WOTUS.
LINKS
Read "State of WOTUS: Have you seen Bill Murray in Groundhog Day?," co-authored by Stacey Bosshardt, published by the ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources: Trends. (pg. 12)