26 



Mr. Wayland. Those terms have not been defined. They must be 

 defined to reaUze the implementation of the new role for the Soil 

 Conservation Service to which the four agencies have agreed in 

 principle. So that is an important step yet to be taken and which 

 has not yet been taken. 



Ms. Lambert. So no previous definition will be assumed. It is 

 simply what comes out of it? 



Mr. Wayland. That is correct. 



Ms. Lambert. The administration's efforts obviously are in hopes 

 that they will eliminate the inconsistencies between wetlands de- 

 lineation procedures with the SCS, Food Security Act manual and 

 the 1987 Federal manual. Do we expect the SCS manual to be 

 changed to comply with the 1987 Federal manual or do we antici- 

 pate the 1987 Federal manual to change to conform with the SCS 

 manual? 



Dr. Teels. It is the policy of the government to use the 1987 

 manual. However, for agricultural areas where the vegetation is 

 typically removed and we are faced with having to predict if hydro- 

 phytic vegetation would be there if it were not for the farming, we 

 will use the procedures currently contained in the Food Security 

 Act manual that the Department of Agriculture uses for wetland 

 determinations. 



Ms. Lambert. You are basically going to have two manuals? 



Dr. Teels. No. There will not be two manuals. There will be a 

 single process. The Corps 1987 manual will be used for the nonagri- 

 cultural wetlands and the Food Security Act manual that deals 

 with agriculture lands will be used for the agriculture lands. So 

 one technical procedure will be used by either the Corps or the Soil 

 Conservation Service. 



Ms. Lambert. But two manuals with regard to what ever we 

 happen to come up with in the definition of agricultural lands? 



Dr. Teels. That is right. 



Ms. Lambert. So it will be quite important. 



Dr. Dickey, under the current regulations, what is the time dead- 

 line for the Corps to decide on a permit application? 



Dr. Dickey. We have no deadlines established. We have goals 

 which are used to measure our performance, but we do not have 

 the deadlines envisioned in the administration's policy. 



Ms. Lambert. The current? 



Dr. Dickey. The proposed policy to establish deadlines which are 

 not there yet. 



Ms. Lambert. I do understand that there is a proposed 90-day 

 deadline. Does it include measures in the event that a deadline is 

 not met? 



Dr. Dickey. Again, how the deadline process will work will be es- 

 tablished through a rulemaking. We certainly don't envision a 

 process that, if the 90 days is reached, the applicant would auto- 

 matically get a permit or whatever. It is not that kind of a dead- 

 line. There is not going to be a default provision where if a decision 

 is not reached, the permit is automatically granted. 



Ms. Lambert. It just costs money. Time is money, I think, in 

 most of those instances. 



Dr. Dickey. Indeed. What I see the deadline procedure serving is 

 really a mechanism by which individual permit cases of a routine 



