New Wetlands Guidance

EVERYTHING IS CHANGING……

……AGAIN!

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA have issued Draft Guidance that would, once again, change which wetlands and waters are considered Jurisdictional.

Where does your project stand?

What do you need to do to protect your value?

Call Jim McCulley at LandmarkJCM for more information and look for our breakfast seminar coming up in June.

(302) 323-9377

www.LandmarkJCM.com

Federal Wetlands Guidance Out for Comment

It took a little over a year to get the guidance from the Federal Government after the Rapanos Case was heard in the Supreme Court. This guidance addressed the Rapanos case as well as the earlier SWANCC case and gave us all complicated but clear rules about what waters were regulated by the Federal Government and which weren't.

We have been hearing the rumor for over a year now that the Obama Administration was going to release their new guidance because the "Bush era" guidance didn't regulate enough waters. That day is finally here and the guidance is out for comment (see link at bottom of this blog).

The new Draft Guidance appears to try to grab more waters as jurisdictional, especially isolated waters that were clearly excluded by the SWANCC case and the subsequent guidance. Jim McCulley of LandmarkJCM will be meeting with leaders from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA next week in Washington DC to discuss this guidance and to get clarification.

LandmarkJCM will be scheduling a breakfast seminar in June to discuss what this guidance means to our clients.

Guidance Here: http://www.usace.army.mil/CECW/Documents/cecwo/reg/nwp/cwa_wous_guide.pdf

New Wetland Guidance Coming

The new guidance for Federal Jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act is expected to be released soon. It is expected that this guidance will greatly increase the acreage of jurisdictional lands. For details see:

http://www.martenlaw.com/newsletter/20110311-federal-jurisdiction-over-wetlands

but:

A lawsuit was just decided in which the courts gave less weight to agency guidance, see details here:

http://www.martenlaw.com/newsletter/20110311-cwa-jurisdiction-dispute

New Castle County JD Issue

Jim spent the day yesterday informing the Council and Executive's Office about the issues associated with requiring a Jurisdictional Determination (JD) for projects in the County.

Jim also attended the Council meeting last night and was prepared to testify. The JD language was removed from the omnibus amendments to the UDC at the last minute and Councilman Reda suggested that a working group be put together to deal with this issue prior to the December Council Meeting.

Jim will stay on top of this issue, if you have any comments or concerns, please contact Jim at jim@jcmenv.com or visit http://www.jcmenv.com/

New Employee

The Sciences Branch welcomes a new employee today, John Phelps.

John has extensive Pennsylvania wetland and waterway permitting experience as well as:

Soils (Septic evaluator, designer and inspector in PA, perc testing)
GIS (Highly skilled in GIS and GPS)
Storm Water and Road Construction Inspection
Wetland Delineation

He previously worked in Mercer County NJ, Dept of Transportation doing water management and mosquito control. As well as a civil engineering firm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

John will be the newest PM in the Sciences Branch and will be taking the lead on existing and new Pennsylvania projects as well as other wetland delineation and permitting projects.

John can be reached at jphelps@jcmenv.com or 302-737-9335 X107

An Interesting Rapanos Opinion

I came across this Op-Ed today and found it interesting:

http://rapanos.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/01/op-ed-on-the-rapanos-settlement.html

For more information contact JCM Environmental at http://www.jcmenv.com/ or 302- 737-9335

Corps and EPA Fighting?

There have been recent reports and released documents that indicate that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. EPA are fighting over the definition of jurisdictional waters.

You can find the article here:
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2292

The House oversight committee has released documents here:
http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20081216113901.pdf

This all points to the possible introduction of new legislation under the new administration to reauthorize or clarify the Clean Water Act.

The Supreme Court has spoken in the SWANCC decision and the Rapanos decision and so it will be interesting to see that spin that Congress puts on this issue if they get involved. It is definitely time for the Congress to act and hopefully they will follow the lead of the Supreme Court decisions.

We will keep you up to date here.