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Questions or Comments?

Email: ceswt-ro@usace.army.mil

Submit Applications to:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
CESWT-RO
1645 South 101st East Ave.
Tulsa, OK  74128

Regulatory Program Overview

The mission of the Corps of Engineers Regulatory Program is to protect the nation's aquatic resources, while allowing reasonable development through fair, flexible, and balanced permit decisions. The Corps evaluates permit applications for essentially all construction activities that occur in the nation's waters, including wetlands. Corps permits are also necessary for any work, including construction and dredging, in the nation’s navigable waters.

The Corps balances the reasonably foreseeable benefits and detriments of proposed projects, and makes permit decisions that recognize the essential values of the nation's aquatic ecosystems to the general public, as well as the property rights of private citizens who want to use their land. During the permit process, the Corps considers the views of other federal, state and local agencies, interest groups, and the general public.

The results of this careful public interest review are fair and equitable decisions that allow reasonable use of private property, infrastructure development, and growth of the economy, while offsetting the authorized impacts to the waters of the U.S. Unavoidable adverse impacts to the aquatic environment are offset by mitigation requirements, which may include restoring, enhancing, creating, and preserving aquatic functions and values. The Corps strives to make its permit decisions in a timely manner.

Our Commitment to Public Service

Public service is a public trust. We, as Corps regulators, must earn this trust, and to keep this trust, we must conduct ourselves in a manner that reflects the following principles:

PROFESSIONAL - We will conduct ourselves in a professional manner in dealings with all our customers, including applicants, violators, agencies, interest groups and the general public.

FAIR AND REASONABLE - We will be open-minded, impartial, and consistent in our interactions with all our customers to ensure all actions and decisions are free from bias and are not arbitrary or capricious. Customers will be treated equally and with tolerance.

KNOWLEDGEABLE - We will remain knowledgeable of applicable laws, regulations, and scientific and technical advances which affect our program.

HONESTY - We will be truthful, straightforward, and candid in all dealings with our customers.

TIMELINESS - We will strive to provide our customers with timely regulatory responses regardless of whether those responses are favorable or adverse.

ACCOUNTABILITY - We will be decisive in all actions and accept responsibility for any of our decisions and resulting consequences. All decisions will be factual and properly documented.

RESPECT - We will treat our customers with dignity, courtesy, compassion, and sensitivity.

"Value to the Nation"

 
"Regulatory Program Value to the Nation" is a brochure which describes how the Corps of Engineers applies the nation's clean water laws and regulations to ensure that environmental impacts on aquatic resources are avoided, minimized, or mitigated. The Corps of Engineers is dedicated to protecting the nation's aquatic resources while allowing reasonable and necessary development.

Authorities

Provisions written in three federal laws give responsibility to the Corps of Engineers to assess and control the impacts of human activities within specific water resource areas in the United States:

Congress' objective is to protect waterway navigation and the quality of surface water and ocean habitat. Two of these laws are applicable to the Tulsa District -- the Rivers and Harbors Act and the Clean Water Act. Additional clarification of these authorities is provided in the program's implementing regulations (33 CFR 320-332).