55 



The Administration policy also addresses the concerns of landowners for fair, efficient, and 

 timely decision making. In August, EPA and Army issued guidance to field staff highlighting 

 the flexibility that exists in the Section 404 program to apply less rigorous permit review to 

 small projects with minor environmental impacts. In addition, key regulations are being 

 developed by Army, in coordination with EPA and other members of the interagency Working 

 Group, to improve the Section 404 permit process by establishing permit deadlines. The Army 

 is also developing regulations to estabUsh an administrative appeals process under the 

 regulatory program so that farmers and other landowners can seek review of jurisdictional 

 determinations, administrative penalties, and permit denials without going to court. The 

 Administration policy also endorses the use of mitigation banks for compensatory mitigation 

 under the Section 404 program within environmentally sound limits. Mitigation banks, 

 especially when developed within the context of a watershed planning effort, can assist in 

 integrating permit-by-permit mitigation of unavoidable wetiand losses into an overall watershed 

 restoration strategy. 



We beheve that the Administration's wedands plan represents a course of action that is able 

 to address this country's wetlands poUcy concerns. There will be more information for all 

 of us to consider when the report of the National Research Council's Committee on 

 Wetlands Characterization is released later this year. 



CLEAN WATER 



Let me change the focus of the discussion now to the subject of nonpoint-source pollution 

 and the reauthorization of the Clean Water Act, with an update on USDA's water quality 

 activities on private and Federal lands. 



Private Lands 



Our first major effort began with the Rural Clean Water Program in 1980 to implement 



