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<br />1989] <br /> <br />WATER RIGHTS PROTECTION <br /> <br />8. <br /> <br />the Corps prepared and proposed more extensive regulations, tho <br />agency became the subject of criticism and suspicion by formerly a <br />dent supporters. <br />The idea that farming practices, irrigation,. and municipal wat, <br />supply projects could be prohibited or restricted by lengthy perm <br />processing and adverse decisions was threatening, particularly to sem <br />arid states. The result was an amendment sponsored by Represent <br />tive James Wright to curtail 404 jurisdiction to traditionally navigab <br />waters. The amendment, which passed the House in both the 94th <br />and 95th29 Congress, would then have focused the Clean Water A, <br />almost entirely on control of point sources through section 402, con <br />bined with a cooperative state/federal approval and planning al <br />proach to nonpoint source control through section 208. <br />Reauthorization of federal clean water law was deadlocked frOJ <br />1975 to 1977, in large measure due to the 404 controversy. A compn <br />mise was then forged in the Senate and in the Conference Committe <br />through the efforts of two leading westerners who were members ( <br />the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, SenatorMa: <br />colm Wallop of Wyoming and Senator Gary Hart of Colorado. As <br />result, section 10 I (g) was added to the Clean Water Act for the pUl <br />poses of (I) reaffirming the long-standing primacy of the states ove <br />water allocation decisions, (2) protecting water rights established b <br />state law, and (3) directing federal agencies to develop pollution con <br />trol programs that operate in concert with state water law programs. 3 <br />As part of the compromise, broad jurisdiction was kept in the Corp <br />for authorizing fills in the waters of the United States, increased em <br />phasis was placed on exemptions for normal agricultural practices an, <br />usage of general and nationwide permits, speedier review was require( <br />for making site-specific permit decisions, J1 and EP A's authority WI!; <br />retained for enforcement of the 404(b)(1) guidelines32 through a 40< <br />permit veto,33 if necessary, to serve overriding national environmenta <br />goals. <br />Legislative history of the 1972 and 1977 Acts is key to under. <br />standing the essential congressional compromises that were struck ir <br /> <br />28. 4 LEG1SLATIVE HISTORY OF THE CLEAN WATER ACT, supra note 27, at 131.5. <br />29. H.R. 3199. See 4 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF .THE CLEAN WATER ACT, supra note 27, a <br />1187, lJ63. <br />30. S. CONF. REP. No. 830. 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 2, 52. See 3 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THI <br />CLEAN WATER ACT, supra note 21, at 186,236. <br />31. See 3 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE CLEAN WATER ACT, supra note 27, at 348.51. <br />32. EPA Guidelines fOT Specification of Disposal Sites for Dredged or Fill Material, 40 C.F.R <br />i 230 (1988). <br />