John Rapanos, a real estate developer, sought to fill in a wetland on his property in Michigan in order
to build a condominium. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality refused him permission
to do so, saying that the area was a protected wetland under the Clean Water Act. Under the Clean
Water Act, the government is allowed to regulate pollution into any "navigable water." Rapanos
argued that the site for the condominium was separated by a four-foot-wide earthen barrier from a
ditch that emptied into another ditch that ultimately emptied into Lake St. Clair, a navigable water.
The government argued that under regulations issued by the Army Corps of Engineers, wetlands are
covered by the Clean Water Act as long as they are adjacent to traditionally navigable waters. On
appeal, the judges decided that the word "navigable" in the Clean Water Act means that onlv water
with a continuous surface connection with a water of the United States can be regulated, not water
with occasional or intermittent flows into navigable waters.