EPA, Army Corps To Revisit "Waters Of The U.S."

From AWWA Water Utility Insider

On June 9, EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday announced they will revisit the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS).

The announcement was made as they requested a remand in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts (Conservation Law Foundation et al. v U.S. EPA; Case No. 20-cv-10820) of the 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule issued under the Trump Administration.

This filing is to be followed by similar filings in the more than one dozen ongoing court cases related to the definition of waters of the United States.

EPA and the Corps are seeking to undertake a three-step revision process beginning with a return to the rules used prior to the 2015 Obama Administration’s Clean Water Rule. The plan is to then to propose a “durable definition” of WOTUS and finally promulgate a final revised definition.

This announcement has no immediate effect, as existing requirements remain in effect until the processes EPA and the Corps have initiated advance. Expect to see stakeholder outreach on the revisions beginning this summer. The agencies did not estimate how long revisions will take to complete.

In describing the findings of the administration’s review under Executive Order 13990, EPA found that the current definition was causing significant, ongoing and irreparable environmental damage. Under the current rules, there has been a 25% reduction in jurisdictional determinations, with EPA aware of 333 projects that no longer required permits but would have under the previous rule.

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