New Water Rule Archives

Feb 12, 2020

EPA’s New Water Rule to Face Major Challenges in Court

The EPA’s new rule which was unveiled on January 23 to replace the Obama administration’s Waters of the United States rule is expected to face major challenges in court as the Trump rule contains very little scientific justification for the change. The rule redefines which bodies of water are covered by federal antipollution laws, and is far narrower than the Obama administration’s version. The new policy excludes isolated wetlands and ephemeral streams that only flow after heavy rainfall. The 2015 Waters of the United States rule came with volumes of scientific justification, and the Trump administration will have to demonstrate… Read more

Aug 24, 2015

Corps’ Memo Declares Economic, Technical Support Documents for New Water Rule Flawed

In a May 15, 2015 memorandum published just prior to the U.S. EPA’s issuance of regulations clarifying the scope of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”), the Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) claims that the economic and technical analysis provided by the Corps to the U.S. EPA regarding Section 404 permitting spanning fiscal years 2009 to 2014 was misapplied by the EPA in crafting the CWA rule which was jointly published on June 2015. The memo claims that the Corps provided the EPA with raw dredge-and-fill permitting data and that the Corps had no role in selecting or analyzing the data that… Read more