What Happened
On December 30, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) announced a final rule that will update the definition of waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) for use in regulations under the Clean Water Act (CWA). This rule is the latest, but certainly not the last, attempt to codify nationwide regulations that define the jurisdictional extent of the CWA.
Read more in the full Regulatory Alert.
Why It Matters
The new rule largely codifies the approach for determining jurisdiction that the agencies have relied on nearly consistently since 2008; the two short-lived exceptions are the Obama-era Clean Water Rule and the Trump-era Navigable Waters Protection Rule. Broadly speaking, the newly finalized rule represents middle ground when compared to the iterations promulgated under the previous two U.S. presidential administrations—the rule extends jurisdiction to many features that were excluded under the Trump-era Navigable Waters Protection Rule and potentially does not include features that were considered jurisdictional under the Obama-era Clean Water Rule.
SWCA Lens
SWCA will schedule a webinar to discuss the new WOTUS rule; a related pending Supreme Court decision; and other related regulatory developments, such as a National Ordinary High-Water Mark (OHWM) guidance. Additional pending program changes include the CWA Section…
