The US Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers jointly began their reevaluation of and possible revisions to the Waters of the United States rule that was adopted during the Obama administration’s second term. They proposed rescinding the rule’s definition of US waters and returning to regulations that existed before a 2015 rule as their first step, the agencies said in a July 27 Federal Register notice.
“Proposing to recodify the regulations that existed before the 2015 Clean Water Rule will provide continuity and certainty for regulated entities, the states, agency staff, and the public,” EPA and ACE said. “In a second step, the agencies will pursue notice-and-comment rulemaking in which the agencies will conduct a substantive re-evaluation of the definition of ‘waters of the United States’.”
Comments will be accepted through Aug. 28, the notice indicated.
They initially proposed reviewing and rescinding the rule adopted in late May of 2015 on June 27 in response to US President Donald J. Trump’s Feb. 28 executive order on “Restoring the Rule of Law, Federalism, and Economic Growth by Reviewing the ‘Waters of the United States’ Rule” (OGJ Online, June 28, 2017).
Congressional Republicans and US industries including oil and gas immediately said EPA and ACE went too far in defining bodies of water that would be regulated when they issued the 2015 rule (OGJ Online, May 28, 2015).
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