These different agency manuals resulted in inconsistent determinations of wetland 

 boundaries. This caused confusion and created the need for a single, unified Federal 

 method for wetland delineations. 



THE 1989 FEDERAL MANUAL - In January 1989, EPA, the Corps, FWS and SCS 

 agreed to use one approach for delineating areas under the jurisdiction of Section 404 

 and Swampbuster. The four agencies adopted a sin gle manual, referred to as the 

 "Federal Manual for Identifying and Delineating Jurisdictional Wetlands" (the 1989 

 Federal Manual). The 1989 Federal Manual established a national standard for 



identifying and delineating 



DEFmrnoNS of wetlands 



\JS. EPA and Army CDqis of Engine^s 



'Those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface 

 or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to 

 support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a 

 prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated 

 soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, 

 bogs, and similar areas." 



SoQ Conservation Service 



"Wetlands are defined as areas that have a predominance 

 of hydric soils and that are immdated or saturated by surface 

 or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to 

 support, and under normal circumstances do support, a 

 prevalence of hydrophytic vegetation typically adapted for life 

 in saturated soil conditions..." 



Fish and Wfldlife Service 



'Wetlands are lands transitional between terrestrial and 

 aquatic systems where the water table is usually at or near 

 the surface or the land is covered by shallow water. For 

 purposes of this classification wetlands must have one or 

 more of the following three attributes: 1) at least periodically, 

 the land supports predominantfy hydrophytes, 2) the substrate 

 is predominantly undrained hydric soil, and S) the substrate is 

 nonsoil and is saturated with water on covered by shallow 

 water at some time during the growing season of each year.* 



vegetated wetlands. Consistent 

 with each Agency's regulatory 

 definition, the 1989 Federal 

 Manual specified the three 

 mandatory technical criteria (or 

 parameters) needed to be met 

 to determine whether or not an 

 area was a wetland. These 

 were: wetland hydrology, hydric 

 soil characteristics, and 

 hydrophytic vegetation. The 

 technical criteria contained in 

 the 1989 Federal Manual were 

 designed to conform with the 

 Federal definitions of wetlands 

 used by the four agencies. The 

 Federal Manual also provided 

 guidance on how to collect and 

 use field indicators (such as 

 free water, water-stained 

 leaves, silt marks, wetland 

 dependent plant species and 

 organic soils) to determine 

 whether or not the technical 

 criteria were met. 



REVISING THE 1989 FEDERAL MANUAL - When the Federal Manual was 

 adopted, it was anticipated that future revisions might be required. Revisions to the 

 1989 Federal Manual are based on the experience gained from its use over the past 

 two years. Recommendations for changes were received from both inside and outside 

 the agencies. Because of the strong degree of public interest in the Federal Manual, 

 the four agencies provided the public with several opportunities to submit technical 

 comments as part of the Federal Manual revision process. Four public meetings were 



