Rulings drain protections for state waterways. Mark Jaffe Denver Post May 10, 2009

Most assume that the Clean Water Act covers all waterways within the United States. Not true.
This article in the Denver Post featured a stream outside the rule of the law and "the waters of the United States" (p. B1), according to the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Mark Jaffee, the reporter who wrote the article, disclosed that "76,000 miles of Colorado streams--73 percent of the state's waterways--are . . . at risk of losing federal wetlands and pollution protection. Jaffee attributed the cause to the "U. S. Supreme Court decisions and Bush administration interpretations of those rulings that limit the scope of the Clean Water Act" (p. B1). Trout Unlimited, a non-profit group, studied the effects that these interpretations had on pollution controls, "because a quarter of the sewage treatment and industrial outfall pipes are on Colorado waterways that don't meet the 'waters of the United States' definition" (p. B12).

The court placed certain conditions on the classification of waters of the United States--navigability, "'relatively permanent waters' connected to navigable waterways" (B120, and those determined on a case by case basis. In response, Senator Russell Feingold and other Democrats have sought to protect all streams by attempting to pass four times the Clean Water Restoration Act.

Fortunately, streams fall under the jurisdiction of the state and local government. Because the location of the stream mentioned in the article, existed in North Castle Pines in Douglas County, Colorado, these jurisdictions took action. The stream, Newlin Gulch, flowed into the Reuter-Hess Reservoir. Local authorities built a boat ramp, "making it a navigable water" (B12).