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Wetlands (Section 404) Compliance Monitoring
CWA Topics
- National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
- Pretreatment of Wastewater
- Biosolids
- Oil Spill Prevention
- Industrial Storm Water
- Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
- Municipal Storm Water
- Wetlands
- Wastewater Trading Program
- Discharge Monitoring Report - Quality Assurance
For regulatory purposes under the Clean Water Act, the term wetlands means "those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas."
The National Wetland Monitoring and Assessment Work Group helps states and tribes build their capacity to implement and sustain wetland monitoring and assessment programs that support wetland restoration and protection, through policy and guidance development, and technical and programmatic support. The goal of the workgroup is to ensure that wetland monitoring and assessment is integrated in the state monitoring strategy along with rivers, streams, and lakes in a watershed approach to monitoring and assessment.
Compliance Monitoring
EPA conducts inspections of sites to:
- determine whether dredged or fill material is being illegally dumped into wetlands in violation of the regulations and statute
- verify whether and if facilities/sites have a wetlands permit and are complying with it
- monitor steps taken to minimize or avoid wetland impacts where practicable
These inspections involve inspecting the physical site and interviewing personnel knowledgeable of the site.