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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA have issued Draft Guidance that would, once again, change which wetlands and waters are considered Jurisdictional.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The new Draft Guidance appears to try to grab more waters as jurisdictional, especially isolated waters that were clearly excluded by the SWANCC case and the subsequent guidance.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

Wetlands Guidance (Revised)

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued revised guidance on wetlands this month. This guidance was in response to the Rapanos Supreme Court Decision and revises and further clarifies the previous guidance.

The new guidance can be found at: http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/pdf/CWA_Jurisdiction_Following_Rapanos120208.pdf

The new guidance clarifies the definition of Navigable Waters to expand to Waters that are navigable-in-fact or could be used for navigation. There is also a further clarification of adjacency and jurisdiction and further discussion of "significant nexus".

All of the clarifications are to the benefit of the agencies.

To see how this affects your project, please contact JCM Environmental. http://www.jcmenv.com/

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. --George Bernard Shaw