The Clean Water Act and the Santa Cruz River

Introduction

News flash!
Court rules to dismiss case by Home Builders (Aug 19, 2010)

Judge: Builders' suit over navigability filed prematurely
Wash protection stays for now (view as PDF)
Tony Davis, Arizona Daily Star (August 23, 2010)

In the past, the Army Corps of Engineers has interpreted the Clean Water Act to apply to the Santa Cruz River and desert washes that feed into it. This has allowed the Corps to regulate developments that affect riparian habitat and that might pollute the watershed. The 2006 Rapanos Supreme Court Decision forced the Army Corps of Engineers to reconsider this, by requiring protected waterways to have a significant connection to "navigable waters of the United States."

This, in turn, caused the Corps to do a study of whether the Santa Cruz River should be considered navigable waters of the United States, under the definition of navigability used for the Clean Water Act. On May 23, 2008 the study was published on the Corps' Web site. It declared that two long reaches of the river were, indeed, navigable.

However, apparently the Corps has removed the study from its Web site. This raises the question of whether the Corps' has been pressured to reconsider, which could hinder its ability to protect riparian habitat from development and pollution. You may follow these events more closely by reading the following items.

Documents (most recent first)

Letter to President-elect Obama and a staff memo (to Waxman and Oberstar) outlining the findings of the joint Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure and Oversight and Government Reform investigation into the Bush administration's handling of Clean Water Act enforcement and implementation post-Rapanos. The memo provides specific examples of how this administration has undermined the Clean Water Act, including dropped or lower enforcement priorities for ongoing Clean Water Act violations, as well as internal administration dialogue on the true impact of the decision and the implementation guidance. In addition, the memo outlines how the ASA(CW) of the Corps placed politics over science in determining the scope of Clean Water Act protections for the Santa Cruz River in Arizona. The memo references several internal agency emails and communications that are being made available online at the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's webpage ( http://oversight.house.gov/ ). (Dec 16, 2008)

Letter from EPA, confirming Traditional Navigable Water status to two stretches of the Santa Cruz River (Dec 3, 2008)

The Ecological and Hydrological Significance of Ephemeral and Intermittent Streams in the Arid and Semi-arid American Southwest, published by the EPA. (Nov 2008)
The report addresses the hydrological and ecological significance of ephemeral and intermittent streams in the arid and semi-arid Southwestern United States (U.S.) for the purpose of illustrating their connection and value to perennial stream systems and other “waters of the United States” as protected under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, otherwise known as the Clean Water Act (CWA).

Clean Water Restoration Act Fact Sheet by Environment Arizona

Letter: Gabrielle Giffords expresses her concerns regarding the Clean Water Restoration Act to Chairman Oberstar and other members of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee (Sept 17, 2008)
Tucson Audubon has requested that the Congresswoman join the 176 co-sponsors of the bill, and this letter explains why she will not support it in its current form. The Congresswoman supports action that will reaffirm the intent of the Clean Water Act which was in place before recent Supreme Court decisions called the scope of the law into question. She believes that some modification to the language in the CRWA is necessary in order to restore the intent and guard against further legal action.

Chairman of Pima County Board of Supervisors, Richard Elias, letter to EPA regarding Pima County's Resolution on the maximum application of the Clean Water Act to the Santa Cruz River (Aug 22, 2008)

Pima County Board Resolution and Staff Memorandum (Aug 18, 2008)

Raúl Grijalva Statement on EPA Control Over Santa Cruz River (Aug 18, 2008)

EPA declares Santa Cruz River a Special Case: authority evoked for the first time
Letter from Benjamin Grumbles to John Paul Woodley (Aug 17, 2008)

Letter from Stephen Owens (AZ Dept. of Environmental Quality) to Benjamin Grumbles, Office of Water, US EPA (Aug 7, 2008)

Letter from James Oberstar and Henry Waxman to John Paul Woodley, Assist. Sec. of the Army for Civil Works (Aug 7, 2008)

Brief comments by Paul Green to Pima County Board of Supervisors (July 18, 2008)

Letter from Matt Scroch to Pima County Board of Supervisors (July 18, 2008)

Letter from the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection to the Pima County Board of Supervisors (July 17, 2008)

Rep. Raúl Grijalva's letter to John Paul Woodley, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works (July 10, 2008)

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' letter to John Paul Woodley, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works (July 10, 2008)

U. S. Army Corps of Engineers determination of two reaches of the Santa Cruz River as Traditional Navigable Waters (May 23, 2008)