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Term/A Wetlands Description of Selected General Terms and Acronyms Areas that are typically saturated with surface or ground water that creates an environment supportive of wetland vegetation (i.e., swamps, marshes, bogs). The Corps of Engineers Wetlands Delineation Manual (Technical Report Y-87-1) defines wetlands as areas inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. For an area to be considered a jurisdictional wetland, it must meet the following criteria: more than 50 percent of the dominant plant species must be categorized as Obligate, Facultative Wetland, or Facultative on lists of plant species that occur in wetlands; the soil must be hydric; and, wetland hydrology must be present. The federal Clean Water Act which regulates "waters of the US," also regulates wetlands, a program jointly administered by the USACE and the EPA. Waters of the U.S. are defined as: (1) waters used in interstate or foreign commerce, including all waters subject to the ebb and flow of tides; (2) all interstate waters including interstate wetlands; (3) all other waters such as intrastate lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, or natural ponds, etc., which the use, degradation, or destruction could affect interstate/ foreign commerce; (4) all impoundments of waters otherwise defined as waters of the U. S., (5) tributaries of waters identified in 1 through 4 above; (6) the territorial seas; and (7) wetlands adjacent to waters identified in 1 through 6 above. Onlv the USACE has the authoritv to make a final wetlands iurisdictional determination.