Take action: dredge and fill permits

1) Get on the list for public notice of dredge and fill permits in your basin.

2) Get to know your local Army Corps of Engineers staff.

3) Ask questions of state agencies (water quality, natural resource, and fish and wildlife), university researchers and consulting firms to find out how much of your watershed has been filled, altered or disturbed by dredging and filling, and by what activities. Inform agencies about new projects in your basin.

4) Ask your local Army Corps of Engineers office for a list of general (nationwide, regional, statewide) permit applications in your watershed, and then comment on individual impacts. Insist on individual permits when impacts are likely to be significant.

5) When general 404 permits are developed or revised, participate actively. Address cumulative impacts within specific general permits and across all general permit categories in your basin.

6) Find out whether your state has specific wetland designated uses and water quality criteria. If not, ask whether and how the state water quality standards apply to wetlands.

7) Call your state water quality agency about Section 401 certification for all individual and general permits in your basin. Raise questions about potential violations of water quality standards, especially regarding implementation of the state's antidegradation policy.

8) Find out how the filling of wetlands is factored into the development of TMDLs.Are dredge and fill projects considered sources of sediment? Are fill projects considered as changes to hydrology? Is planned future development (involving 404 permits) taken into account in the implementation process?

9) Support adequate staffing and funding for wetland protection in your state agencies and in regional offices of the Corps and the EPA.