CRS-82 



(vi) Wetlands which are prime natural recharge areas. Prime 

 recharge areas are locations where surface and ground water are 

 directly interconnected. 98 / 



The regulations also include this statement of policy: "As environmen- 

 tally vital areas, [wetlands] constitute a productive and valuable public 

 resource, the unnecessary alteration or destruction of which should be dis- 

 couraged as contrary to the public interest." 99 / Figure 1 compares juris- 

 diction of the Corps under section 10 and section 404. 



The regulations proposed phased implementation of the expanded program 

 to ease the new administrative burden on the Corps. Regulation of Phase I 

 waters took effect immediately and covered areas that had been subject to the 

 program in the past. The Phase I program represented 85 percent of all waters, 

 but it covered only 15 percent of total wetland acreage under the Corps' regu- 

 latory jurisdiction. 100 / Phase II, to be implemented one year later, extended 

 regulation to primary tributaries of traditionally navigable waters, natural 

 lakes greater then five acres in surface areas, and adjacent wetlands. Phase 

 III, to be effective July 1977, extended coverage to all other waters falling 

 under the expanded jurisdiction of the Corps. 



The total geographic jurisdiction of the Corps' regulatory program thus 

 includes the following: 25,000 miles of waterways, 3 million miles of river, 

 124,000 miles of tidal shoreline, 4.7 million miles of lakes shoreline, 30,000 

 miles of canal shoreline, and 148 million acres of wetlands. Of the national 

 totals, the State of Alaska accounts for about one-third of the river miles 

 38 percent of the tidal shorelines, 94 percent of the lake shoreline, and 45 



98/ Ibid., p. 31328. 

 99/ Ibid. 

 100/ U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Impact Analysis, Draft, p. 105. 



