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Corps of Engineers and EPA Roll Back Definition of "Discharge of Dredged Material" for Section 404 Permits to 1999 Regulation Status

By Michael Payne

For over twenty years, the federal government and private industry, including contractors, mining companies, developers and builders, have debated the extent to which land clearing and dredging activities should be regulated. Since the 1970's, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have regulated the discharge of pollutants into the waters of the United States under 33 U.S.C. §1251 et seq., [the Clean Water Act]. Section 404 of the Act includes the discharge of dredged or fill materials as a regulated activity, and the Corps, by issuance of Section 404 permits, has regulated excavation activities in navigable waters and wetlands. 

In the 1980's, "discharge of dredged material" was not considered by the agencies to include the “de minimis incidental soil movement that occurs during normal dredging.” In the early 1990's, the Corps and EPA redefined the term to include the redeposit of dredged material. This regulatory definition was challenged in court, and in 1998 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the agencies could not regulate "incidental fallback."   National Mining Association v. U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, 145 F.3d 1399. In August 2000, the Corps and EPA included a definition of the term "incidental fallback" in the regulations. The agencies also added that the use of mechanized earth-moving equipment in waters of the United States was presumed to result in the discharge of dredged material, except where the equipment usage could be shown to only result in incidental fallback. The adoption of these definitions was apparently the agencies' "reasoned attempt to more clearly delineate the Clean Water Act jurisdiction" rather than develop a "bright line" rule for determining which activities would require a Section 404 permit.

 

In response to an adverse decision issued by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in January 2007, National Ass'n of Home Builders v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Civil Action No. 01-0274, January 30, 2007, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency recently adopted a Final Rule on December 31, 2008, 73 FR 79641, that deleted the definition of "incidental fallback" from 33 CFR 323.2(d)(2)(ii) and 40 CFR 232.2(2)(ii), as well as the language indicating that the Corps and EPA "regard" the use of mechanized earthmoving equipment as resulting in a discharge subject to regulation.

 

With the re-issuance of the Section 404 regulations, the situation now will be as it was in 1999 where the decision as to when a particular redeposit of dredged material is subject to Clean Water Act jurisdiction will entail a case-by-case evaluation. This regulatory roll back may create additional burdens to parties that engage in activities that involve incidental fallback and the use of mechanized earthmoving equipment. Corps and EPA guidance in the 1990's identified these activities as including:

 

· Mining activities, including sand and gravel mining, aggregate mining, precious metals and gem mining, recreational mining, and small instream hydraulic dredges

 

· Ditching and draining activities, including ditching to lower the water table, ditching to drain

wetlands, and removal of beaver dams

 

· Maintenance dredging activities and excavation for currently used flood control projects or for

previously abandoned flood control, and irrigation or drainage projects

 

· Channelization and the reconfiguring or straightening of streams

 

(See 1997 Corps/EPA Memorandum)

Full post as published by Federal Construction Contracting Blog on January 10, 2009 (boomark / email).