Opinion of the Court
United States.” The provision begins with a broad category, “the waters of the United States,” which we may call category A. The provision provides that States may permit discharges into these waters, but it then qualifies that States cannot permit discharges into a subcategory of A: traditional navigable waters (category B). Finally, it states that a third category (category C), consisting of wetlands “adjacent” to traditional navigable waters, is “includ[ed]” within B. Thus, States may permit discharges into A minus B, which includes C. If C (adjacent wetlands) were not part of A (“the waters of the United States”) and therefore subject to regulation under the CWA, there would be no point in excluding them from that category. See Riverside Bayview, 474 U. S., at 138, n. 11 (recognizing that §1344(g) “at least suggest[s] strongly that the term ‘waters’ as used in the Act does not necessarily exclude ‘wetlands’ ”); Rapanos, 547 U. S., at 768 (opinion of Kennedy, J.). Thus, §1344(g)(1) presumes that certain wetlands constitute “waters of the United States.”
But what wetlands does the CWA regulate? Section 1344(g)(1) cannot answer that question alone because it is not the operative provision that defines the Act’s reach. See Riverside Bayview, 474 U. S., at 138, n. 11. Instead, we must harmonize the reference to adjacent wetlands in §1344(g)(1) with “the waters of the United States,” §1362(7), which is the actual term we are tasked with interpreting. The formulation discussed above tells us how: because the adjacent wetlands in §1344(g)(1) are “includ[ed]” within “the waters of the United States,” these wetlands must qualify as “waters of the United States” in their own right. In other words, they must be indistinguishably part of a body of water that itself constitutes “waters” under the CWA. See supra, at 14.
This understanding is consistent with §1344(g)(1)’s use of “adjacent.” Dictionaries tell us that the term “adjacent” may mean either “contiguous” or “near.” Random House
