{"id":36166,"date":"2008-03-26T16:35:41","date_gmt":"2008-03-26T21:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.findlaw-admin.com\/ability-legal\/uncategorized\/wetlands-ruling.html"},"modified":"2008-03-26T16:35:41","modified_gmt":"2008-03-26T21:35:41","slug":"wetlands-ruling","status":"publish","type":"corporate","link":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/law-library\/wetlands-ruling.html","title":{"rendered":"Wetlands Ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"fl-gutenberg-byline\">\n    <div class=\"fl-gutenberg-byline-content\">\n                    <p><em>This article was edited and reviewed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.findlaw.com\/company\/our-team.html\" rel=\"noopener\">FindLaw Attorney Writers<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n                | Last reviewed\n        <time>\n                            May 07, 2026\n                    <\/time>\n    <\/div>\n\n    \n    <details class=\"fl-gutenberg-byline-toggle fl-gutenberg-byline-legally-reviewed\">\n        <summary>\n            <i class=\"fl-gutenberg-byline-icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>\n            Legally Reviewed\n        <\/summary>\n\n        <div class=\"fl-gutenberg-byline-toggle-content\">\n            <p><em>This article has been written and reviewed for legal accuracy, clarity, and style by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.findlaw.com\/company\/our-team.html\" rel=\"noopener\">FindLaw\u2019s team of legal writers and attorneys<\/a> and in accordance with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.findlaw.com\/company\/company-history\/editorial-policy.html\" rel=\"noopener\">our editorial standards<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/details>\n\n    <details class=\"fl-gutenberg-byline-toggle fl-gutenberg-byline-fast-checked\">\n        <summary>\n            <i class=\"fl-gutenberg-byline-icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>\n            Fact-Checked\n        <\/summary>\n\n        <div class=\"fl-gutenberg-byline-toggle-content\">\n            <p><em>The last updated date refers to the last time this article was reviewed by FindLaw or one of our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.findlaw.com\/company\/our-team\/contributing-authors.html\" rel=\"noopener\">contributing authors<\/a>. We make every effort to keep our articles updated. For information regarding a specific legal issue affecting you, please <a href=\"https:\/\/lawyers.findlaw.com\/?fli=bylinelink\" rel=\"noopener\">contact an attorney in your area<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/details>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"rxbodyfield\" xmlns:o=\"urn:www.microsoft.com\/office\" xmlns:st1=\"urn:www.microsoft.com\/smarttags\" xmlns:w=\"urn:www.microsoft.com\/word\" xmlns:x=\"urn:www.microsoft.com\/excel\"><p>To the surprise of absolutely no one, EPA&#39;s Environmental Appeals Board narrowly construed the decision in <i>National Mining Association v. U.S.Army Corps of Engineers<\/i>, 145F.3d 1399 (DC Cir. 1998), which enjoined EPA from enforcing the so-called &quot;Tulloch Rule&quot;, which defined the discharge of dredged materials to include &quot;any redeposit&quot; of such material. The DC Circuit held that the incidental fall back of dredge materials was not a regulable &quot;addition&quot; of material under the Clean Water Act. In the case of <i>In Re: Slinger Drainage, Inc.<\/i>, CWA AppealNo.98-10 (September29, 1999), the Environmental Appeals Board upheld the enforcement action that EPA Region5 brought against Slinger Drainage Inc. for using its Hoes Trenching Machine to dig a trench and lay drainage tile and then redeposit the excavated material back into the trench. In a curious twist of logic, the Board found that because <i>Slinger<\/i> redeposited all of the material that it excavated instead of just some of the material like the dredging company in the Circuit Court case, the decision in <i>National Mining<\/i> was not applicable. The Circuit Court had stated as follows:&quot;We agree with the plaintiffs, and the District Court, that the straightforward statutory term &#39;addition&#39; cannot reasonably be said to encompass the situation in which material is removed from the waters of the United States and a small portion of it happens to fall back.&quot; and &quot;[W]e fail to see how there can be an addition of dredged material when there is no addition of material.&quot; The Environmental Appeals Board nevertheless found that when there is no addition of a lot of material, it somehow becomes an addition.<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To the surprise of absolutely no one, EPA&#8217;s Environmental Appeals Board narrowly construed the decision in National Mining Association v. U.S.Army Corps of Engineers, 145F.3d 1399 (DC Cir. 1998), which enjoined EPA from enforcing the so-called &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_stopmodifiedupdate":true,"_modified_date":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false},"corporate_categories":[6506,6497,6514],"class_list":["post-36166","corporate","type-corporate","status-publish","hentry","corporate_categories-law-library__environmental-law","corporate_categories-law-library","corporate_categories-law-library__maritime-law"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/corporate\/36166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/corporate"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/corporate"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"corporate_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporate.findlaw.com\/legal-api\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/corporate_categories?post=36166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}