On June 18, 2009 the Committee on Environment and Public Works approved the Clean Water Restoration Act (CWRA) or S.787 which will now be considered by the full Seante. The CWRA will amend the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act (aka Clean Water Act) to clearify the juristiction of the United States over rivers, streams, and wetlands after two Supreme Court rulings in 2001 and 2006 left legal confusion over the terms "navigatable waters" and "waters of the United States".

This bill will amend the original Clean Water Act to replace all occurances of "navigatable waters" with "waters of the United States" defined as:

...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 streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, natural ponds, and all impoundments of the foregoing, to the fullest extent that these waters, or activities affecting them, are subject to the legislative power of Congress under the Constitution.

S. 787: Clean Water Restoration Act