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Trump admin’s EPA to revisit Waters of United States

The Waters of the United States Rule is getting a revamp – again.

The U.S. EPA says to date, the agency has failed to follow the law and implement the Supreme Court’s clear holding in Sackett vs. EPA and Americans need to know which waters are subject to federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act.

Missouri Farm Bureau President Garrett Hawkins tells Brownfield “you take definitions like relatively permanent and how are we as farmers, ranchers and landowners supposed to interpret that as we think about how we use and manage our land every day?”

Hawkins, who was at the EPA in Washington D.C. for the announcement, says until Congress can step in to issue guidance, the agency will take on the task to find a more durable definition.

The U.S. EPA says it will start its review by getting input from stakeholders who were sidelined in the previous administration. The agency will undertake a rulemaking process to revise the 2023 WOTUS definition to focus on clarity that will stand the test of time. And while the rulemaking process proceeds, EPA says it will issue guidance to the states implementing the pre-2015 definition of WOTUS for consistency. Read more.

Other ag groups are responding to the EPA’s decision.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Chief Legal Counsel Mary-Thomas Hart says “Today’s guidance is an important step toward refocusing the Clean Water Act to its original purpose. NCBA thanks EPA Administrator Zeldin for his work to finally close a decades-long chapter of severe regulatory whiplash.”

Litigation filed by the American Farm Bureau Federation and other ag groups over previous definitions of the WOTUS rule are on hold, because courts have granted a stay request.