Regulatory steps needed to protect and conserve wetlands not subject to the Clean Water Act

This report responds to legislative direction to describe the steps and resources needed to protect California wetlands and other waters that are not covered by the federal Clean Water Act (CWA). It gives special attention to “isolated” waters removed from CWA jurisdiction by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2001 decision in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (SWANCC).

Wetlands and riparian areas support extraordinary biodiversity and are uniquely important in sustaining the hydrologic, chemical, and ecological integrity of broader aquatic systems. However, for physical and legal reasons, they present special management challenges. Neither CWA nor the state Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act (Porter-Cologne) were designed to conserve wetlands, and their regulatory protection is therefore often problematic and incomplete.