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S. 1081 (the 1991 Clean Water Act Reauthorization Bill) signals an important shift from the historic focus on the use of a chemically based definition of water quality to protect existing and reasonably foreseeable uses of water to the use of an ecologically based definition of water quality to restore the nation's waters to their naturally occurring condition.11 Because the diversion and use of water under a state water right has unavoidable impacts on naturally occurring aquatic habitat, the implementation of this change in the west presents a direct conflict with state water allocation and administration systems. Congress has historically deferred to the states to allocate and administer water rights,-I' and water quality protection has been primarily a federal program. The 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended in 1977 and 1987, regulates water pollution through several, key programs (collectively referred to as the "Clean Water Act" or "CWA"). Section 301 makes the discharge of a pollutant illegal, unless otherwise authorized under the CWA. The discharge of pollution from "point source-s'" is regulated by the Section 402 or NPDES program, administered by EPA directly or by states which have accepted delegation of the program. NPDES permits are limited by federally set "effluent standards" and by any additional restrictions which are required to meet water quality standards set by the states to protect existing and future uses of water. "Nonpoint" sources were originally to be addressed in locally defined 112081" programs under the 172 and '77 versions of the Act. However, Section 319 of the 187 CWA Amendments shifted the focus on nonpoint programs to state defined voluntary Best Management Practices ('"BMPs'") Y The "dredge and fill" of "waters of the EPA asserts. that the legal authority for this position is found in Section 101(a) of the Clean Water Act, which states that "The objective of this Act is to restore and maintain the chemical, bjglogical and physical integrity of the Nation's waters. . . oil However, EPA's February 11, 1991 Paper on ".Arid Area and Water Efficiency Issues," implicitly recognizes that the existing authority to require the implementation of Biological Criteria, particularly when applied to protect instream flows, may need to be "clarified." 2.1 Sig, e.g., Mining Act of 1866; Homestead Act of 1870; Desert Land Act of 1877; Carey Act of 1894; Taylor Grazing Act of 1934; California v. United A_a_es, 438 U.S. 645 (1982); and the Wallop Amendment, 33 U.S.C. 1251(g). .2/ Nonpoint sources include overland flows from agricultural, urban, silvicultural and mining activities, and also water quality impacts of dams and diversions. . R 4 1)