Syllabus

William and Mary Hammond purchased eight lots on Chincoteague Island, Virginia, in the mid-1960s. Twenty-five years later, the Hammonds entered into an agreement with Raymond Britton, Jr., the president of Britton Construction Company, to develop housing on the lots. At that time, at least two of the lots--Lots 9 and 11--contained wetlands protected by section 404 of the Clean Water Act ("CWA"), 33 U.S.C. § 1344, which prohibits the filling of such areas without a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ("Corps").