Prior to the rule, some developers worked around wetlands laws by digging ditches and draining property. Harris said the US Army Corps of Engineers and EPA exceeded their authority in adopting the regulations. The appropriate remedy for what the agencies now perceive to be an imperfect statute is congressional action. The ruling was hailed as a victory for groups opposing the regulation. Environmental groups were unhappy with the ruling saying that it would lead to new losses of wetlands.
Developers usually dump dirt or other fill material into wetlands under development.
This requires a special permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. The Tulloch rule was an attempt to designate the ditch digging as a filling procedure. The agencies argued that some material from the digging equipment would fall into the wetlands. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more egregious violation of the spirit of the Clean Water Act. The most important bills came from the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.