UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Protecting and Restoring our Nation’s Waters: The Effects of Science, Law, and Policy on Clean Water Act Jurisdiction with a focus on the Arid West A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Environmental Science and Engineering by Forrest Brown Vanderbilt 2013 © Copyright by Forrest Brown Vanderbilt 2013 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Protecting and Restoring our Nation’s Waters: The Effects of Science, Law, and Policy on Clean Water Act Jurisdiction with a focus on the Arid West by Forrest Brown Vanderbilt Doctor of Environmental Science and Engineering University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Professor Richard F. Ambrose, Chair Since its initial passage in 1972, the Clean Water Act has attempted to restore and protect our Nation’s waters. The definition of ‘our Nation’s waters’ has undergone periodic debate and scrutiny as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Supreme Court have defined and redefined the standards for determining CWA jurisdiction. The Supreme Court’s most recent set of standards, including the “significant nexus” test, appear to both increase the uncertainty in what is regulated and increase the burden of proof for determining CWA jurisdiction. The Arid West was singled out in the most recent EPA and Corps joint jurisdictional guidance as a problematic area. Focusing on the Arid West, my dissertation evaluates the CWA jurisdiction process from three perspectives: law, policy, and ii science, and explores an understanding of the past, present, and potential future path of CWA jurisdiction. I analyzed Corps jurisdictional determinations from their national database. The data showed that the Corps has reversed their trend of issuing the complex and often time intensive Approved Determination to the expeditious Preliminary Determination that affords the same protection to an aquatic resource with reduced effort, and showed that the number of determinations disclaiming jurisdiction have returned historical levels. Also, the data showed that some local Corps offices do not mirror the national trends. In exploring the current state of stream research, the data showed a parallel in the timing of the Supreme Court Cases and subsequent guidance to increases in the number of articles published. In addition, the data showed that research on Arid West streams have focused on a smaller set of functions and services as compared to all potential stream functions. Using readily available tools and peer reviewed methods, I have proposed a delineation process that would bring transparency and consistency to the Approved JD process. Data showed that these tools and methods produce meaningful results in an Arid West watershed. The current CWA jurisdictional guidance can still meet the primary objective of the Act within the current policy framework and through the incorporation of existing tools into the determination process. iii The dissertation of Forrest Brown Vanderbilt is approved. Ann E. Carlson Terri S. Hogue Philip W. Rundel Richard F. Ambrose, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2013 iv DEDICATION I dedicate my dissertation to wife, Bethany, and my son, Malcolm. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ................................................................................. ii LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. xi LIST OF ACRONYMS ......................................................................................................... xiii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................... xiv VITA ....................................................................................................................................... xv Chapter 1 .............................................................................................................1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................1 CWA Jurisdiction and Rapanos v. United States .................................................................. 1 Corps CWA jurisdictional implementation ........................................................................... 4 Literature Review and Scientific Tools for the JD process identified by Justice Kennedy .. 4 Objectives .............................................................................................................................. 7 References ............................................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 2 ...........................................................................................................14 Past, Present, and Future of Clean Water Act policy, legal interpretation, and guidance on defining ‘waters of the United States’ .................................................14 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 14 Clean Water Act .................................................................................................................. 16 Clean Water Act Jurisdictional Regulation ......................................................................... 18 Supreme Court Rulings ....................................................................................................... 20 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 35 Tables .................................................................................................................................. 38 References ........................................................................................................................... 41 Appendix A – Summary of lower court decisions post-Rapanos ....................................... 47 Appendix B – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Draft Guidance Document dated April 2011 ............................................................................ 64 Appendix C – Bibliography and relevant section from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Draft Guidance Document dated April 2011 .... 103 Chapter 3 .........................................................................................................113 A Review of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Clean Water Act Jurisdictional Determinations post-SWANCC through post-Rapanos: Implications for Clean Water Act Implementation .....................................................................................113 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 113 vi Data Sources and Methods ................................................................................................ 119 Results and Discussion ...................................................................................................... 122 Corps HQ data ............................................................................................................... 122 Los Angeles and Portland Data ..................................................................................... 123 Savannah and Jacksonville ............................................................................................ 124 Charleston, Wilmington, and Baltimore ........................................................................ 126 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 127 Tables ................................................................................................................................ 130 Figures ............................................................................................................................... 146 References ......................................................................................................................... 161 Chapter 4 .........................................................................................................164 A review of published stream research, 1939-2010: Functions, Services, and Values, focusing on the Arid Southwest ................................................................164 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 164 Bibliometric methods ........................................................................................................ 169 Methods and Data Sources ................................................................................................ 170 Results and Discussion ...................................................................................................... 171 Characteristics of publications ....................................................................................... 171 Distribution of Journals and Databases ......................................................................... 172 Distribution of search terms in article title, keywords, and abstract analysis