Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. 1344). This Act prohibits the discharge 

 of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States without a permit from the 

 Corps of Engineers. 



Section 103 of the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972, as 

 amended (33 U.S.C, 1413), authorizes the Corps of Engineers to issue permits for the 

 transportation of dredged material for the purpose of dumping into the ocean waters. 



Other laws may also affect the processing of applications for Corps of Engineers 

 permits. Among these are the National Environmental Policy Act, the Coastal Zone 

 Management Act, the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, the Endangered Species 

 Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Deepwater Port Act, the Federal 

 Power Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and 

 the National Fishing Enhancement Act of 1984. 



In addition to the authority of the Corps of Engineers to regulate activities in the wetlands, the 

 Louisiana State and Local Coastal Resources Management Act of 1978 initiated a major effort to 

 develop a coastal management program under Section 305 of the Coastal Zone Management Act. 



It is doubtful that any marsh landowner has ever read all of the Federal and State statutory acts 

 with regard to regulation of wetlands. It is also doubtful that the landowner understands the 

 provisions, conditions, and implications of the acts or the rules and regulations developed to 

 administer them. The complex nature of application and receipt of a Coastal Use Permit and a 

 Section 404 Permit has led to a situation of extreme frustration on the part of landowners, both 

 large and small. 



Current publicity presents land loss as a condition that has just been discovered within the past 

 decade, but for an extensive period of time landowners recognized land loss in coastal Louisiana. 

 Coastal land loss has been referred to by a large number of wildlife researchers and land managers. 

 Comparison of early marsh investigations by O'Neil (1949) and investigations carried out by 

 researchers of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (Chabreck et al. 1968) 

 graphically record the loss. The comparison led to the publication of a vegetative type map of the 

 coast that was updated in 1978. Field data collected in 1987 are in the final stages of 

 interpretation and will soon be published. 



Before passage of the various regulatory acts, most landowners addressed marsh management 

 problems on a basis of need and the availability of funds to carry out structural projects. Even 

 after passage of the acts, some landowners continued for a time to implement projects without 

 permits because of poor communication between regulatory agencies and the real world, the user. 

 This situation has improved and only on rare occasions are large projects discovered that are not 

 covered by proper permits. 



Mineral activity in the Louisiana coastal wetlands is an industry of long standing. This industry 

 is accustomed to applying for exploration and production permits of oil and gas deposits. In most 

 cases there is a large staff to attend to this administrative chore, and obtaining coastal use permits 

 is just another layer of bureaucratic paper work. Private or public land mineral leases are held by 

 companies that do not own the surface of the property. Requirements injected into and made a 

 part of permits issued for access to remote exploration sites are of little consequence to the mineral 

 operator as long as these requirements are economically within reason. Most mineral leases are 

 of long primary terms and landowners have not understood the need to incorporate extensive 

 environmental provisions into the terms and conditions of the original leases. 



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