Integrating State and Federal Needs Under the Clean Water Act

Management of water resources—of wetland resources—is as complex as it is essential. Water is subject to wildlife use, public use, private use, competing use, misuse, reuse; and wetlands in particular are subject to the land use plans of private property owners. Water is first of all essential to life—but can also threaten life during storms and floods. To complete the circle, wetland resources can provide a buffer against those tragedies. In the cross-currents of ecological, economic, and biological pressures associated with a resource that flows across all man-made boundaries, questions about responsibility for wetland protection seem somewhat inevitable.