WASHINGTON – Yesterday, the Trump administration’s Environment Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed rule that would overthrow the 2015 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) regulation from the Obama administration.

The Obama administration’s WOTUS regulations, which went into effect in August 2015 but were later blocked by the Sixth Circuit Court, vastly expanded which waters are considered protected under the Clean Water Act.

The Obama-era regulations were met with opposition from the business and agriculture industries who felt that the regulations went too far and would drastically increase cost of permitting and compliance. For instance, any convenience store near or touching a protected water would face additional permitting and Clean Water Act requirements.

Opponents of the rule filed more than a dozen lawsuits challenging the rule in district courts and more than 20 petitions for review of the rule in federal appeals courts. Last February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided that appeals courts had jurisdiction on matters related to the Clean Water Act and placed a nationwide stay on the rule. In January, the Supreme Court decided to hear the case, which does not examine whether the rule itself is lawful but the narrower legal question of where legal challenges to the WOTUS rule should be heard (i.e. in federal district or appellate courts).

In the coming days, EPA will formally publish a proposed rule that will rescind the current rule and replace it with previous language defining what constitutes “waters of the United States.” This action has been expected since Trump signed an executive order in February requesting that the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers review the regulation. Subsequently, the EPA will initiate a notice-and-comment rulemaking to re-evaluate the WOTUS definition.

On the agency’s decision, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt stated, “We are taking significant action to return power to the states and provide regulatory certainty to our nation’s farmers and businesses. This is the first step in the two-step process to redefine ‘waters of the U.S.’ and we are committed to moving through this re-evaluation to quickly provide regulatory certainty, in a way that is thoughtful, transparent and collaborative with other agencies and the public.”

Please stay tuned to the NACS Daily for further updates.