After a protracted conference reminiscent of the deadlock that preceded enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977, Congress has finally passed a compromise set of revisions¹ to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (FWPCA).² The conference report was filed on December 6,³ and both houses approved the measure on December 15, 1977 and sent it to the White House for President Carter's signature. The revisions, which industry generally accepted as fair while certain environmental advocates voiced disappointment, represent more than two years of legislative effort. A similar package of proposed amendments to the FWPCA was aborted in 1976 when a conference committee could not reach a compromise between divergent Senate and House bills at the end of the 94th Congress.⁴

The amendments will make a number of important changes in the FWPCA, perhaps the most obvious being a new "popular" name, the Clean Water Act. Equally noteworthy, however, is the retention of certain central aspects of the original statutory scheme, such as the broad scope of the Army Corps of Engineers' jurisdiction over discharges of dredge and fill material pursuant to §404, which had been under prolonged attack.⁵ This Comment will describe the salient features of the amendments and analyze their regulatory significance.