[20181022]IF10125_美国陆军和美国环境保护局定义“美国水域”（WOTUS）的规则概述及最新发展.pdf

https:/crsreports.congress.gov Updated October 22, 2018Overview of the Army Corps and EPA Rule to Define “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) and Recent DevelopmentsOverview: What Is “WOTUS”? In June 2015, the Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the Clean Wateror “Waters of the United States”final rule (80 Federal Register 37053), which revised regulations defining the scope of waters protected and regulated under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Discharges to waters, including wetlands, require a CWA permit (e.g., pollutants from factories or sewage treatment plants and dredging and filling of spoil material through mining or excavation). The legal and policy questions regarding the geographic limit of CWA jurisdiction and the consequences of restricting or expanding that limit have challenged regulators, developers, landowners, and policymakers for decades. Background of the Rule The CWA protects “navigable waters,” which it defines as “the waters of the United States, including the territorial seas.” Waters need not be truly navigable to be subject to CWA jurisdiction. The acts single definition of “navigable waters” applies to the entire law,