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1989] WATER RIGHTS PROTECTION request, but in June 1977 President Carter refused to renew the pri administration's delay in implementing more comprehensive Cot regulation. 53 On the House side, the 94th Congress in 197654 adopted t Wright Amendment, which would have limited 404 jurisdiction to tl ditionally navigable waters. 55 A year later in the 95th Congress, t House again, adopted the Wright provision,'6 which would have IiI ited 404 jurisdiction to: all waters wbich are presently used, or are susceptible to use in their natural condition or by reasonable improvement as a means to transport interstate or foreign commerce shoreward to their or- dinary high water mark, including all wate,rs which are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide shoreward to their mean high water mark (mean higher high water mark on the west coast) . , , .57 Many western members of the House of Representatives rose; support of the Wright Amendment. Representative Virginia Smith, Nebraska specifically spoke about the need to preserve state wat, policy: I feel that section 16 is the best resolution of this entire controversy because it insures agriculture an unrestricted use of water re- sources, perpetuates the State's privilege to dictate water policy, and avoids needless expense, . . . Protection and allocation of water necessarily demands a careful balancing of many important social and economic interests. It should be the State's role to weigh these concerns at a local level where the questions are best understood and handled.'. Representatives William Harsha and James Cleveland objected to tho Wright Amendment on the grounds that it would exclude from Corp jurisdiction eighty percent of the nation's wetlands and ninety-eigh percent of its stream miles.'. The debate in the Senate was equally impassioned, but the out come was reversed. In the 94th Congress, the Senate had rejected Sen ator John Tower's amendment to duplicate the Wright Hous< 53. 4 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE CLEAN WATER ACT, supra note 27. al 932-39. 54. H.R. 9560, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. (1976). 55. ld. See 4 LEGiSLATIVE H,STORY OF THE CLEAN WATER ACT, supra note 21, at 1220. 56. H.R. J 199, 95th Cong.. 1st Sess. (197:5). See 4 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE CLEAN WATER ACT, supra note 27, at 1218. 57. See 4 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE CLEAN WATER ACT, supra note 27, at 1183. 58. 123 CONGo REC. 10,427.28 (1977) (remarks.of Rep. Smith), reprinted in 4 LEGISLATIVE HIS- TORY OF T}fE CLEAN WATER ACT. supra note,27. at 1347. 59. 123 CoNr.. RFC 11l4n~(1Q7"\("""""r"'r,,f'D__~ u_ .