Opinion of the Court
§1251(b). It is hard to see how the States’ role in regulating water resources would remain “primary” if the EPA had jurisdiction over anything defined by the presence of water. See County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, 590 U. S. ___, ___ (2020) (slip op., at 7); Rapanos, 547 U. S., at 737 (plurality opinion).
B
Although the ordinary meaning of “waters” in §1362(7) might seem to exclude all wetlands, we do not view that provision in isolation. The meaning of a word “may only become evident when placed in context,” FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 529 U. S. 120, 132 (2000), and statutory context shows that some wetlands qualify as “waters of the United States.”
In 1977, Congress amended the CWA and added §1344(g)(1), which authorizes States to apply to the EPA for permission to administer programs to issue permits for the discharge of dredged or fill material into some bodies of water. In simplified terms, the provision specifies that state permitting programs may regulate discharges into (1) any waters of the United States, (2) except for traditional navigable waters, (3) “including wetlands adjacent thereto.”[1]
When this convoluted formulation is parsed, it tells us that at least some wetlands must qualify as “waters of the
- ↑ This provision states in relevant part: “The Governor of any State desiring to administer its own individual and general permit program for the discharge of dredged or fill material into the navigable waters (other than those waters which are presently used, or are susceptible to use in their natural condition or by reasonable improvement as a means to transport interstate or foreign commerce shoreward to their ordinary high water mark, including all waters which are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide shoreward to their mean high water mark, or mean higher high water mark on the west coast, including wetlands adjacent thereto) within its jurisdiction may submit to the Administrator a full and complete description of the program it proposes to establish and administer under State law or under an interstate compact.” 33 U. S. C. §1344(g)(1).
