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Page Number: 22.0

16 

SACKETT v. EPA 

Opinion of the Court 

in other laws.  The CWA repeatedly uses “waters” in con-
texts that confirm the term refers to bodies of open water. 
See  33  U. S. C.  §1267(i)(2)(D)  (“the  waters  of  the  Chesa-
peake Bay”); §1268(a)(3)(I) (“the open waters of each of the
Great Lakes”); §1324(d)(4)(B)(ii) (“lakes and other surface 
(“estuarine  waters”);
waters”); 
§1343(c)(1) (“the waters of the territorial seas, the contigu-
ous zone, and the oceans”); §§1346(a)(1), 1375a(a) (“coastal 
recreation waters”); §1370 (state “boundary waters”).  The 
use of “waters” elsewhere in the U. S. Code likewise corre-
lates to rivers, lakes, and oceans.13 

§1330(g)(4)(C)(vii) 

Statutory  history  points  in  the  same  direction.    The 
CWA’s predecessor statute covered “interstate or navigable 
waters” and defined “interstate waters” as “all rivers, lakes, 
and  other  waters  that  flow  across  or  form  a  part  of  State 
boundaries.”  33 U. S. C. §§1160(a), 1173(e) (1970 ed.) (em-
phasis added); see also Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, 30
Stat. 1151 (codified, as amended, at 33 U. S. C. §403) (pro-
hibiting unauthorized obstructions “to the navigable capac-
ity of any of the waters of the United States”).

This Court has understood the CWA’s use of “waters” in 
the  same  way.  Even  as  Riverside  Bayview  grappled  with
whether adjacent wetlands could fall within the CWA’s cov-
erage,  it  acknowledged  that  wetlands  are  not  included  in 
“traditional notions of ‘waters.’ ”  474 U. S., at 133.  It ex-
plained  that  the  term  conventionally  refers  to  “hydro-
graphic features” like  “rivers” and “streams.”  Id., at 131. 
SWANCC  went  even  further,  repeatedly  describing  the
“waters” covered by the Act as “open water” and suggesting 

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13 See, e.g., 16 U. S. C. §745 (“the waters of the seacoast . . . the waters 
of the lakes”); §4701(a)(7) (“waters of the Chesapeake Bay”); 33 U. S. C.
§4 (“the waters of the Mississippi River and its tributaries”); 43 U. S. C. 
§390h–8(a) (“the waters of Lake Cheraw, Colorado . . . the waters of the 
Arkansas River”); 46 U. S. C. §70051 (allowing the Coast Guard to take
control  of  particular  vessels  during  an  emergency  in  order  to  “prevent
damage or injury to any harbor or waters of the United States”).