The Department of the Army's Regulatory Program is one of the oldest in the federal government. Initially, it served a simple purpose: to protect and maintain the navigable capacity of the nation's waters. Changing public needs, evolving policy, court decisions and new statutory mandates have changed several aspects of the program including its breadth, complexity and authority.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, through the Regulatory Program, administers and enforces Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 (RHA) and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Under RHA Section 10, a permit is required for work or structures in, over or under navigable waters of the United States. Under CWA Section 404, a permit is required for the discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States. Many waterbodies and wetlands in the nation are waters of the United States and are subject to the Corps' regulatory authority.

The Regulatory Program is committed to protecting the Nation's aquatic resources and navigation capacity, while allowing reasonable development through fair and balanced permit decisions. The Corps evaluates permit applications for essentially all construction activities that occur in the Nation's waters, including wetlands.

• January 20, 2023 - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), along with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, is announcing the availability of draft changes to the 2022 NWPL and soliciting public comments on the proposed changes to wetland indicator status ratings for two plant species in the Arid West region. The Federal Register Notice for the 2022 NWPL update can be found at: 2023-01026. The public comment period ends on March 21, 2023.

• January 18, 2023 – The Department of the Army and U.S. Environmental Protection published the revised rule for Definition of “Waters of the United States” in the Federal Register.  The rule takes effect March 20, 2023. 

• July 7, 2022 - Fees for standard permits can now be paid through pay.gov at https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/996412796. The fee is $10 for a standard permit for a non-commercial activity and $100 for a standard permit for a commercial or industrial activity. The final decision on the basis of a fee (non-commercial versus commercial/industrial) is solely the responsibility of the District Engineer. When the Corps makes a decision to issue a standard permit, the applicant will be notified for the amount and be asked to submit the required fee through pay.gov. Note a fee is not charged for transferring a permit from one property owner to another, for verifications under general permits, for letters of permission, or for permits issued to governmental agencies.

• June 2, 2002 - The Department of the Army published a notice in the Federal Register announcing an effort to modernize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works program through several related policy initiatives. This effort includes a series of public and Tribal meetings, as well as a public docket, to gather oral and written input that will be used to inform future decision-making related to: Native American/Tribal Nation issues; potential rulemaking actions regarding the Regulatory Program’s implementing regulations for the National Historic Preservation Act, as well as Civil Works implementation of the Principles, Requirements, and Guidelines; and, environmental justice, including definitions of certain terms used in policy making. The Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works [ASA(CW)] will consider all comments received by August, 2 2022. The opportunities to comment include the public docket, public and tribal virtual meetings, and written comments. The Federal Register Notice may be found at: https://www.regulations.gov/document/COE-2022-0006-0001.

• April 6, 2022 - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released ENG Forms 6116 (1-9), Automated Wetland Determination Data Sheet (ADS), and the associated “User Guide for Automated Wetland Determination Data Sheets” (User Guide). The documents are available at the USACE Regulatory Headquarters website in both Portable Document Format (PDF) and Microsoft Excel (Excel) file formats (see links below). Practitioners should, at a minimum, utilize the PDF versions of the Office of Management and Budget approved forms to document the presence or absence of wetlands for the applications related to the administration of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Rivers and Harbors Act (RHA). The Excel-based ADS is an optional tool.  The Excel-based ADS increases technical accuracy by reducing errors and increases efficiency by automatically populating many of the field indicators of wetland hydrology, hydrophytic vegetation, and hydric soils. See https://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Regulatory-Program-and-Permits/reg_supp/

• March 11, 2022 - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), published a technical report: Rossi & David Field guide to identifying the upper extent of stream channels, ERDC/CRREL TR-22-6. This technical report articulates a methodology for the identification of where a stream channel begins based on the weight of evidence approach combining available information such as ground observations and remote data. We anticipate that this will be an important tool for delineating the upper extent of stream channels.

• February 3, 2022 – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), published a technical note: Gutenson & Deters Antecedent Precipitation Tool (APT) Version 1.0: technical and user guide, ERDC/TN WRAP-2201. The tool is available for download via GitHub at https://github.com/erdc/Antecedent-Precipitation-Tool. APT modernizes and automates the method for assessing precipitation normalcy in the Regional Supplements to the Wetland Delineation Manual (i.e., those indicators and procedures citing Sprecher & Warne (2000) Assessing and Using Meteorological Data to Evaluate Wetland Hydrology, ERDC/EL TR-WRAP-00-1). The tool also incorporates seasonality and drought information and is useful in providing context for the interpretation of aerial imagery, shallow groundwater monitoring, ground observations, etc.