The EPA moved recently to designate the Los Angeles and Santa Cruz Rivers as "special cases" in a matter involving the Army Corps of Engineers to determine which parts of the river systems would be covered by the Clean Water Act, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
It said the determination could affect residential construction throughout the LA basin and parts of Arizona, and contends that the National Association of Homebuilders has been lobbying to narrow applicability of the act concerning whether rivers that flow intermittently, or that remain dry for parts of the year, should be covered.
The chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has also been pressing the EPA over its enforcement of the clean water act in the wake of a high court decision throwing clean water act enforcement into question regarding wetlands and the issue of "navigability."
