Opinion of the Court
property meets this definition.[1]
This Court first construed the meaning of “the waters of the United States” in United States v. Riverside Bayview Homes, Inc., 474 U. S. 121 (1985). There, we were confronted with the Corps’ assertion of authority under the CWA over wetlands that “actually abut[ted] on a navigable waterway.” Id., at 135. Although we expressed concern that wetlands seemed to fall outside “traditional notions of ‘waters,’ ” we nonetheless deferred to the Corps, reasoning that “the transition from water to solid ground is not necessarily or even typically an abrupt one.” Id., at 132–133.
The agencies responded to Riverside Bayview by expanding their interpretations even further. Most notably, they issued the “migratory bird rule,” which extended jurisdiction to any waters or wetlands that “are or would be used as [a] habitat” by migratory birds or endangered species. See 53 Fed. Reg. 20765 (1988); 51 Fed. Reg. 41217 (1986). As the Corps would later admit, “nearly all waters were jurisdictional under the migratory bird rule.”[2]
In Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook Cty. v. Army Corps of Engineers, 531 U. S. 159 (2001) (SWANCC), this Court rejected the migratory bird rule, which the Corps had used to assert jurisdiction over several isolated ponds located wholly within the State of Illinois. Disagreeing with the Corps’ argument that ecological interests supported its jurisdiction, we instead held that the CWA does not “exten[d] to ponds that are not adjacent to open water.” Id., at 168 (emphasis deleted).
Days after our decision, the agencies issued guidance that
- ↑ See Corps, Wetlands Delineation Manual (Tech. Rep. Y–87–1, 1987) (Wetlands Delineation Manual); see also, e.g., Corps, Regional Supplement to the Corps of Engineers Wetland Delineation Manual: Alaska Region (Version 2.0) (ERDC/EL Tr–07–24, 2007).
- ↑ GAO, Waters and Wetlands: Corps of Engineers Needs To Evaluate Its District Office Practices in Determining Jurisdiction 26 (GAO–04–297, 2004) (GAO Report).
