"The EPA insisted that the rule merely clarified which smaller waterways fall under federal protection after two Supreme Court rulings left the reach of the Clean Water Act uncertain. Those decisions in 2001 and 2006 left 60 percent of the nation’s streams and millions of acres of wetlands without clear federal protection, according to EPA, causing confusion for landowners and government officials. "

This is an outright lie. In California, they asserted control of "vernal pools" -- that is, mud puddles that exist only in spring, in years when there is a lot of rain.

They also asserted control of man-made stock tanks.