Thursday, June 25, 2009

Definition of Waters of US - Proposed Revision

The "Clean Water Restoration Act", has been approved by the US Senate Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The proposed law would clarify the scope of the Clean Water Act definition of "waters of the United States". Under the bill, waters of the US would be defined as including:


(A) all waters which are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide;
(B) all interstate waters, including interstate wetlands;
(C) all other waters, such as intrastate lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, or natural ponds;
(D) all impoundments of waters of the United States;
(E) tributaries of the aforementioned waters;
(F) the territorial seas; and
(G) wetlands adjacent to the aforementioned waters;

The draft bill specifically excludes groundwaters from the definition of waters subject to the Clean Water Act.


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