2. How does this happen?

3. Why water?

4. 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

5. Constitutional Basis for National Water Policy

6. 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.

7. 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).

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.

9. So How Did This System of Governance Develop?