Items Tagged with 'ephemeral streams'

The Trump administration's rule reducing the number of wetlands and other areas regulated by the Clean Water Act is likely to be in the cross hairs if Joe Biden wins the presidency, but it would probably take his administration some time to act against that and other regulatory rollbacks

The Trump administration’s proposed new definition of “Waters of the United States” in the Clean Water Act is either a radical policy shift that misinterprets Supreme Court precedent and will leave up to 70 percent of tributaries and half the nation’s wetlands unprotected, or it’s a constitutionally valid approach to regulating the nation’s waters that preserves the states’ lead role over water pollution control and land use planning.

Groups interested in the EPA/Army Corps of Engineers’ proposal to rewrite the definition of “waters of the United States” — and there are many — are struggling to get a handle on its impacts.

In the regulatory picture for 2019, the top issue for aggies is probably the “waters of the United States” proposal, but there are many other items on the agenda for agriculture in the coming year.

EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers announced their new “waters of the U.S.” proposal Tuesday at an event that attracted dozens of farmers and industry leaders who had long sought straightforward definitions that allowed farmers to more clearly decide how to operate on their lands.