Integrating environmental assessment and management in regulatory policy is rarely easy and oftentimes controversial. The current debate surrounding regulation of surface waters in the United States is a case in point. Perhaps impatient with both the pace of science and its own environmental permitting process, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) have embarked on a path to adopt new, expansive interpretations of their regulatory authority under the federal Clean Water Act (CWA). If adopted as law, the proposed changes to the CWA will significantly expand the federal government's authority to impose new permitting and water quality requirements on manmade and natural water bodies not traditionally considered as navigable waters. This path seems destined for a courtroom showdown.
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