How does this happen?

Why water?

Army Corps of Engineers Environmental Protection Agency Bureau of Reclamation Army Corps of Engineers Environmental Protection Agency Federal Emergency Management Administration Central Oklahoma Master Conservancy District Del City and Midwest City City of Norman Department of Environmental Quality Oklahoma Water Resources Board Oklahoma Department of Commerce & Tourism Oklahoma Corporation Commission Association of Central Oklahoma Governments

Constitutional Basis for National Water Policy

Where do we find mention of water in the U.S. Constitution? Not often! The number of mentions of related words – water (1), Navy (2), naval (2), seas (1), dockyards (1). The Constitution makes no express grant of power to regulate the nation’s waters. Congress’s most important power for purposes of environmental protection has been: the power to regulate interstate commerce “with foreign nations and among the several States, and with Indian Tribes” in Article I, Section 8, ¶3; « to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper » Article I, Section 8, ¶18. Congress’s authority to regulate activities, even purely intrastate activities, has extended to the management of waterways, flood control, and water pollution.

Other Relevant Provisions The treaty power, which derives from the Senate’s power of advice and consent to the President in the making of international treaties (Article II, Section 2); Congress’s power to manage all federal property, articulated in the Property Clause (Article IV, Section 3); and Congress’s spending power contained in the Spending Clause (Article I, Section 8).

How Strong is the Authority Granted by the Commerce Clause? The Supreme Court in decisions dating from the earliest days of the Republic have granted Congress very broad constitutional authority to regulate the nation’s waters. Neither the Supreme Court nor federal appellate courts have ever struck down an environmental statute as exceeding Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause. Three general categories of congressional regulation affirmed. the “channels” of interstate commerce (such as highways and rivers); the “instrumentalities” of interstate commerce, and persons or things in interstate commerce; the “activities that substantially affect interstate For clean water legislation, the “channels” and the “substantial effects” prongs are particularly important.

So How Did This System of Governance Develop?