TRVA Position on Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007
H.R. 2421: The Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007
Description: Chairman Jim Oberstar has introduced a bill, HR 2421, to change the definition of “waters of the United States,” as used in the Clean Water Act, from navigable waters to virtually all waters. This change is being driven by recent Supreme Court decisions and the requests from environmental groups.
Background: The Clean Water Act of 2007, HR 2421, was first introduced by Chairman Jim Oberstar on May 22, 2007, and at his urging more than 170 members have become co-sponsors. However, several Democratic backers now appear to be voicing dissent over the legislation in response to industry and agriculture sector fears that it could impose EPA regulations on waters previously beyond the agency’s reach.
Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007- Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to replace the term “navigable waters,” throughout the Act, with the term “Waters of the United States.” Defined to mean all waters subject to ebb and flow of the tide, territorial seas, and all interstate and intrastate waters and their tributaries, including lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sand flats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, playa lakes, natural ponds, and all impoundments of the foregoing, to the fullest extent of these waters, or activities affecting these waters, are subject to the legislative power of Congress under the Constitution.
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.) is amended–
(1) By striking “navigable waters of the United States” each place it appears and inserting “waters of the United States”;
(2) In section 304(1)(1) by striking “NAVIGABLE WATERS” in the heading and inserting “WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES”; and
(3) By striking “navigable waters” each place it appears and inserting “waters of the United States”.
Decisions in several Supreme Court cases have generally indicated that government wetlands regulations should be limited primarily to navigable waterways and adjacent wetlands and should not extend to manmade ditches and other isolated, seasonally or intermittently wet areas.
Industry and agriculture officials have opposed HR 2421 since its introduction in 2007. Consequently, the bill has seen resistance from many GOP lawmakers and struggled to gain traction among some Democrats. Proponents of the bill, however, contend that it would not expand federal authority, but rather would resolve the ongoing controversy over the Clean Water Act’s limits.
TRVA-TCWC Position: TRVA agrees with many other organizations which include waterway promotion associations, shippers, as well as construction, engineering, and business groups, who strongly oppose this legislation based on the unwarranted expansion of federal authority over water resources that properly should be the prerogative of individual states.
