Cite as: 531 U. S. 159 (2001)
Stevens, J., dissenting
clusively determine the construction to be placed on the use of the term 'waters' elsewhere in the Act," 474 U. S., at 138, n. 11 (emphasis added). This is simply more selective reading. In that case, we also went on to say with respect to the significance of § 404(g) that "the various provisions of the Act should be read in pari materia." Ibid. Moreover, our ultimate conclusion in Riverside Bayview was that § 404(g) "suggest[s] strongly that the term 'waters' as used in the Act" supports the Corps' reading. Ibid.
III
Although it might have appeared problematic on a "linguistic" level for the Corps to classify "lands" as "waters" in Riverside Bayview, 474 U. S., at 131-132, we squarely held that the agency's construction of the statute that it was charged with enforcing was entitled to deference under Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837 (1984). Today, however, the majority refuses to extend such deference to the same agency's construction of the same statute, see ante, at 172-174. This refusal is unfaithful to both Riverside Bayview and Chevron. For it is the majority's reading, not the agency's, that does violence to the scheme Congress chose to put into place.
Contrary to the Court's suggestion, the Corps' interpretation of the statute does not "encroac[h]" upon "traditional state power" over land use. Ante, at 173. "Land use planning in essence chooses particular uses for the land; environmental regulation, at its core, does not mandate particular uses of the land but requires only that, however the land is used, damage to the environment is kept within prescribed limits." California Coastal Comm'n v. Granite Rock Co., 480 U. S. 572, 587 (1987). The CWA is not a land-use code; it is a paradigm of environmental regulation. Such regulation is an accepted exercise of federal power. Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining & Reclamation Assn., Inc., 452 U. S. 264, 282 (1981).
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