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Congress is beginning to seriously review national wetlands policy at a time when 

 there is much controversy over the definition of what constitutes "wetlands" under the Clean 

 Water Act of 1972, as well as other related issues affecting many persons and businesses 

 throughout the U.S., equipment manufacturers and 50 university educators/researchers. It 

 has members in 49 of the 50 states, all Canadian provinces and 29 additional countries. 



Owners of land used to produce agricultural commodities have been adversely 

 affected by existing wetlands law and government enforcement policy, even though normal 

 farming and ranching activities are intended to be excluded from the more onerous provisions 

 of existing law. 



The Clean Water Act requires any person to obtain a permit prior to discharging 

 dredge or fill material into the "waters of the United States." The agencies charged with 

 enforcing the Act-Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, Fish and 

 Wildlife Service-have broadly defined the phrase "waters of the United States" to go well 

 beyond common notions of wetlands-swamps, marshes and bogs~to include temporarily 

 saturated wetlands and land that may be dry most of the year. 



Although provisions of the Clean Water Act and the Swampbuster Program created 

 under the 1985 Farm Bill provide partial exemptions from some of the controversial features 

 of current wetlands policy, the exemptions and their interpretations arbitrarily distinguish 

 between annual and perennial agricultural commodities, thereby discriminating against a large 



