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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
The rule replacing the 2015 definition of “waters of the U.S.” is expected in the next few months, but that doesn’t mean federal courts won’t have Clean Water Act cases to deal with in the meantime — and for years to come.
The effort to craft a new rule defining "waters of the U.S." will take another step forward today when EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers send a new proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget for review.
When Scott Pruitt appeared last June before House appropriators to discuss the budget proposal for his agency, he made a bold pronouncement: “We will have a final rule that will provide a definition for ‘waters of the United States’ by the fourth quarter of this year, no later than the first quarter of next year, because that’s the job of the agency.”
Current and future court challenges to the “waters of the U.S.” rule must be heard in federal district courts, not circuit courts of appeals, the Supreme Court said Monday in a unanimous decision that ultimately could lead to lawsuits filed all over the country.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2016 – President Donald Trump today issued an executive order directing the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to reconsider their controversial Waters of the U.S. rule and narrowly interpret their jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act.