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Attached to this testimony are Attachments 3, 4 and 5 that contain the 

 Coalition's positions on specific provisions contained in H.R. 350, H.R. 3465 and the 

 President's Plan. The body of our testimony will focus on the problems we see with 

 the current Section 404 program and the important reforms that we believe are 

 needed. 



THE PROBLEM WITH THE SECTION 404 PROGRAM: 

 Evolution of the Program : 



We believe strongly that the current Section 404 program evolved with 

 the inattention or acquiescence of Congress rather than having been designed by 

 Congress. Section 404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 provided 

 a permitting program for a very specific type of pollution: the discharge of "dredged 

 or fill material" into the "navigable waters, at specified disposal sites." The Act 

 defined "navigable waters" as the "waters of the United States, including the 

 territorial seas." The word "wetlands" does not appear anywhere in the statute or 

 legislative history and it is doubtful that Congress contemplated the current program 

 in 1972. Instead, Federal court decisions in United States v. Holland . 373 F. Supp. 

 665 (M.D. Fla. 1974) and Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Callaway , 392 

 F. Supp. 685 (D.D.C. 1975), began the expansion of the term "navigable waters" to 

 extend "over the nation's waters to the maximum extent permissible under the 

 Commerce Clause of the Constitution." Callawav . at 686. 



