(10) The pollution or other degradation of the 
Nation’s protected water resources, individually and 
in the aggregate, has a substantial relation to and 
effect on interstate commerce. 
(11) Protected water resources, including 
streams and wetlands, provide protection from flood-
ing, and draining or filling wetlands and channel-
izing or filling streams can cause or exacerbate 
flooding, placing a significant burden on interstate 
commerce. 
(12) Millions of individuals in the United States 
depend on the Nation’s protected water resources, 
including streams and wetlands, to filter water and 
recharge surface and subsurface drinking water sup-
plies, protect human health, and create economic op-
portunity. 
(13) Source water protection areas containing 
small, intermittent, and ephemeral streams replenish 
public drinking water supplies serving more than 
110 million individuals in the United States. 
(14)(A) Millions of individuals in the United 
States enjoy recreational activities that depend on 
protected water resources, including streams and 
wetlands, such as waterfowl hunting, bird watching, 
fishing, paddling, and photography. 
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(B) Those activities and associated travel gen-
erate hundreds of billions of dollars of income each 
year for the travel, tourism, recreation, and sporting 
sectors of the economy of the United States. 
(15) Regionally specific protected water re-
sources, such as prairie potholes in the upper Mid-
western prairies, pocosins in the Atlantic coastal 
plain, playa lakes in the southern High Plains, and 
Carolina and Delmarva bays along the eastern coast 
of the United States, provide unique and critical 
benefits to their surrounding regions, including sus-
tainable water quality and availability, groundwater 
recharge, wildlife habitat, and ecological benefits. 
(16) Activities that result in the discharge of 
pollutants into the Nation’s protected water re-
sources, including through dredging and filling, are 
commercial or economic in nature, and, in the aggre-
gate, have a substantial effect on interstate com-
merce. 
(17) Restoring and maintaining the quality of, 
and regulating activities affecting, the Nation’s pro-
tected water resources is essential to fulfilling the 
United States treaty obligations. 
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(18) Restoring and maintaining wetlands and 
other protected water resources is essential to North 
American wildlife, hunters, and anglers. 
(19) Restoring and maintaining the quality of, 
and regulating activities affecting, the Nation’s pro-
tected water resources is necessary to protect Fed-
eral land and waters from degradation. 
SEC. 4. PROTECTED WATER RESOURCES. 
(a) DEFINITIONS.—Section 502 of the Federal Water 
Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1362) is amended— 
(1) by amending paragraph (7) to read as fol-
lows: 
‘‘(7) PROTECTED WATER RESOURCES.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘protected 
water resources’ means all waters subject to the 
ebb and flow of the tide, the territorial seas, 
and all interstate and intrastate waters (and 
their 
tributaries), 
including 
lakes, 
rivers, 
streams (including intermittent and ephemeral 
streams), wetlands, and all impoundments of 
the foregoing, to the fullest extent that these 
waters are subject to the legislative power of 
Congress under the Constitution. 
‘‘(B) EXCLUSIONS.—The term ‘protected 
water resources’ does not include— 
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‘‘(i) any category of water body or 
feature listed in paragraphs (1) through 
(8) of section 120.2(b) of title 40, Code of 
Federal Regulations, as in effect on March 
20, 2023; or 
‘‘(ii) any other category of water body 
or feature excluded by the Administrator 
in accordance with subparagraph (C). 
‘‘(C) REVIEW AND MODIFICATIONS.— 
‘‘(i) REVIEW
REQUIRED.—Not later 
than 1 year after the date of enactment of 
the Clean Water Act of 2023, and periodi-
cally thereafter, the Administrator shall, by 
rule, review the categories of water body or 
feature excluded under subparagraph (B) 
to determine, based on the best available 
scientific evidence, whether the implemen-
tation of such exclusions, or any individual 
exclusion, has a significant cumulative ad-
verse effect on— 
‘‘(I) the chemical, physical, or bi-
ological integrity of— 
‘‘(aa) the waters described 
in subparagraph (A); or 
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‘‘(bb) surface waters, other 
than those described in subpara-
graph (A), that are sources of 
water for public water systems, 
as such term is defined in section 
1401 of the Safe Drinking Water 
Act (42 U.S.C. 300f); 
‘‘(II) environmental justice com-
munities; or 
‘‘(III) water resources described 
in section 518(e)(2). 
‘‘(ii) 
MODIFICATIONS
AND
RE-
MOVAL.—If the Administrator determines 
under clause (i) that the implementation of 
the exclusions, or any individual exclusion, 
under subparagraph (B) has a significant 
adverse effect described in clause (i), the 
Administrator shall, by rule and concur-
rent with such determination— 
‘‘(I) modify the category of water 
body or feature so excluded to ensure 
that, based on the best available sci-
entific evidence, the implementation of 
such category will not have a signifi-
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cant cumulative adverse effect de-
scribed in clause (i); or 
‘‘(II) remove such category. 
‘‘(iii) ADDITIONAL EXCLUSIONS.—The 
Administrator may, by rule, exclude an ad-
ditional category of water body or feature 
under subparagraph (B) if the Adminis-
trator determines, based on the best avail-
able scientific evidence, that the implemen-
tation of such additional exclusion will not 
have a significant cumulative adverse effect 
described in clause (i).’’; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(28) WETLANDS.—The term ‘wetlands’ means 
those areas that are inundated or saturated by sur-
face or ground water at a frequency and duration 
sufficient to support, and that under normal cir-
cumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation 
typically adapted for life in saturated soil condi-
tions.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 
(1) FEDERAL
WATER
POLLUTION
CONTROL 
ACT.—The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 
U.S.C. 1251 et seq.) is amended— 
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(A) in sections 101, 102, 104, 106, 208, 
301, 302, 303, 304, 319, 401, 404, 405, and 
511(c), by striking ‘‘navigable waters’’ each 
place it appears and inserting ‘‘protected water 
resources’’; 
(B) in section 303(c)— 
(i) in paragraph (2)(A), by striking 
‘‘such waters’’ and inserting ‘‘such pro-
tected water resources’’; and 
(ii) in paragraph (4)(A), by striking 
‘‘such waters’’ and inserting ‘‘such pro-
tected water resources’’; 
(C) in section 304(l)(1) by striking ‘‘NAVI-
GABLE WATERS’’ in the heading and inserting 
‘‘PROTECTED WATER RESOURCES’’; 
(D) in section 305— 
(i) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘nav-
igable waters’’ each place it appears and 
inserting ‘‘protected water resources’’; and 
(ii) in subsection (b)(1)— 
(I) in subparagraph (A), by strik-
ing ‘‘navigable waters’’ and inserting 
‘‘protected water resources’’; and 
(II) in subparagraph (B), by 
striking ‘‘navigable waters of’’ and in-
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serting ‘‘protected water resources 
in’’; 
(E) in section 311— 
(i) in subsections (a)(11), (b), and 
(m), by striking ‘‘navigable waters of the 
United States’’ each place it appears and 
inserting ‘‘protected water resources’’; and 
(ii) in subsections (c) and (j), by 
striking ‘‘navigable waters’’ each place it 
appears and inserting ‘‘protected water re-
sources’’; 
(F) in section 312— 
(i) in subsections (a) and (b), by 
striking ‘‘navigable waters’’ each place it 
appears and inserting ‘‘protected water re-
sources’’; and 
(ii) in subsections (h), (l), and (n), by 
striking ‘‘navigable waters of the United 
States’’ each place it appears and inserting 
‘‘protected water resources’’; 
(G) in section 319, by striking ‘‘such 
waters’’ each place it appears and inserting 
‘‘such protected water resources’’; 
(H) in section 402— 
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(i) in subsection (a)(4), by striking 
‘‘into the navigable waters’’; 
(ii) in subsections (b), (g), and (n)(1), 
by striking ‘‘navigable waters’’ each place 
it appears and inserting ‘‘protected water 
resources’’; and 
(iii) in subsection (n)(2), by striking 
‘‘navigable waters of’’ and inserting ‘‘pro-
tected water resources in’’; 
(I) in section 404— 
(i) in subsection (f)(2), by striking 
‘‘such waters’’ and inserting ‘‘such pro-
tected water resources’’; and 
(ii) in subsection (g)(1)— 
(I) by striking ‘‘those waters’’ 
and inserting ‘‘those protected water 
resources’’; and 
(II) by striking ‘‘all waters’’ and 
inserting ‘‘all protected water re-
sources’’; 
(J) in paragraphs (11) and (12) of section 
502, by striking ‘‘navigable waters’’ each place 
it appears and inserting ‘‘protected water re-
sources’’; and 
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(K) in section 511(b), by inserting ‘‘as dis-
charges of pollutants into protected water re-
sources’’ after ‘‘shall be regulated’’. 
(2) OIL
POLLUTION
ACT
OF
1990.—Section 
1001(21) of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 
U.S.C. 2701(21)) is amended by striking ‘‘waters of 
the United States, including the territorial sea’’ and 
inserting ‘‘protected water resources (as defined in 
section 502 of the Federal Water Pollution Control 
Act)’’. 
Æ 
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