Chamber Calls on Supreme Court to Overturn Wetlands Rulings

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC) urged Supreme Court Justices to reject arguments that would extend onerous restrictions of the Clean Water Act (CWA) to areas that are only tenuously connected to wetlands when they hear oral arguments today in the cases of Rapanos v. United States and Carabell v. United States Corps of Engineers, et al.

“Extending Clean Water Act restrictions to areas that have no significant connection to wetlands would impose unnecessary and costly compliance burdens on landowners, developers, and small businesses and stifle economic growth and job creation,” said NCLC’s Senior Vice President Robin Conrad.

The government’s position conflicts with two prior Supreme Court decisions which made clear that when the government seeks to extend CWA jurisdiction beyond “navigable waters”— that is, waters that are sufficiently deep or wide to provide passage for vessels—the government must show that the nonnavigable waters and the navigable waters are inseparable, according to the Chamber.

“The government’s position in both cases hinges on the faulty belief that any ditch or drainage pipe can convert a wetland area into ‘waters of the United States’ for purposes of Clean Water Act jurisdiction,” said Conrad. “Congress clearly intended to restrict CWA’s reach to navigable waters.”

The Rapanos case involves a federal enforcement action against a developer for filling a site in Midland, Michigan where the nearest navigable water is 20 miles away. Carabell involves an Army Corps of Engineers permit denial to fill wetlands that were separated from a ditch by an upland berm that blocked surface drainage of water.

NCLC, a membership organization that advocates fair treatment of business in the courts and before regulatory agencies, is the public policy law firm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is the world's largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.

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