as small as a table top. They occur from the cold tundra of the arctic to the lush, humid 

 tropics near the equator. They may be dark and densely wooded or sunny, open wet 

 grasslands. Many are associated with rivers, streams, lakes, or the sea, but many others are 

 found far from any open-water bodies. Some wetlands are uniform stands of one or a few 

 plant species, while others may contain dozens of important plant species and represent a 

 mixture of several discrete vegetation communities. 



FOUR FEDERAL AGENCIES IDENTIFY AND DELINEATE WETLANDS - There 

 are four federal agencies that have important responsibilities with regard to identifying 

 and delineating wetlands in the United States: the Environmental Protection Agency 

 (EPA); the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps); the Department of Interior's Fish and 

 Wildlife Service (FWS); and the Department of Agriculture's Soil Conservation Service 

 (SCS). EPA and the Corps jointly administer the Section 404 program, which regulates 

 the discharge of dredged or fill material into "waters of the United States," a term 

 which includes rivers, streams, lakes and most of the Nation's wetlands. Among other 

 responsibilities, EPA and the Corps are responsible for making jurisdictional 

 determinations of wetlands regulated under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act -- that 

 is, identifying wetlands and establishing their boundaries. The Department of 

 Agriculture is responsible for implementing the "Swampbuster" provisions of the Food 

 Security Act (also known as the Farm Bill). As one of its program responsibilities, the 

 SCS identifies wetlands on agricultural land to ensure compliance with Swampbuster. 

 FWS serves important advisory roles in the Section 404 and Swampbuster programs. 

 FWS is also responsible for mapping the Nation's wetlands in order to assess the status 

 and trends of their geographic distribution though the National Wetlands Inventory. 



Each of the four agencies has a definition of wetlands for its wetlands programs. 

 While the methods used for wetlands delineation have varied, the definitions of 

 wetlands used by EPA and the Corps, which have remained unchanged since 1977, and 

 are identical and are very similar to those used by FWS and SCS. They all include 

 three basic elements - hydrology (Is the area saturated or inundated with water during 

 the growing season?), vegetation (What kinds of plants are present?), and soils (What 

 kinds of soils are present?). 



ONE MANUAL FOR THE FOUR AGENCIES - Before 1989, each of these agencies 

 had its own procedure for identifying and delineating wetlands. These procedures were 

 developed separately from the other agencies. In 1987, the Corps published a 

 technical manual for wetlands delineation, but its use was not required by the Corps 

 Districts and there were variations in how it was applied in the field. EPA published a 

 wetlands delineation manual in 1988, but it too was not required for regulatory wetlands 

 delineations. The Soil Conservation Service developed procedures for identifying and 

 delineating wetlands for compliance with the Swampbuster provisions of the 1985 Food 

 Security Act. Finally, while it has no formal method for delineating wetland boundaries, 

 in 1979 the Fish and WildUfe Service established guidelines for identifying wetlands. 



