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- Info
A wetland is a wetland is a wetland
| Author: |
Mills, Jeffery H.; Merriam, Dwight; Ayars, Patricia A. |
| Date: |
1986 |
| Periodical: |
Urban Land |
| Abstract: |
Just as Gertrude Stein seemingly defined a rose somewhat generally, though irrefutably, the Supreme Court, is ruling in United States v. Riverside Bayview Homes, Inc. 106 S. CT. 455 (1985) defines wetlands in sweepingly general terms. In essence: A wetland is a wetland is a wetland. The Court's decision in Riverside Bayview represents the climax of a series of decisions and regulatory changes that have gradually led to the broad powers now exercised under the Clean Water Act's Section 404 Dredge and Fill Permit Program. This latest decision, handed down without dissent, thoroughly asserts the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers' jurisdiction under section 404 over a broad range of wetlands, spanning far beyond the navigable waters and their tributaries to which the program had traditionally been confined. Where once the Corps had constructed the act to cover only navigable waters, after years of jurisdictional evolution Section 404 now applies to all adjacent wetlands- such as bogs, swamps, marshes, or shallows- that need not even be flooded or inundated by navigable waters. That is, where once the Corps was limited to regulating well-defined bodies of water, today its jurisdiction seems to spread over a large assortment of so-called wetlands. |
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