EPA takes first step to recodify WOTUS

In late February President Donald Trump ordered a review of the new waters of the United States, WOTUS, definition implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2015 under the Obama administration.

In late June EPA began the official process of re-codifying the WOTUS definition as it was prior to 2015, and as it has been administered under the Clean Water Act following a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, which in October 2015 stayed the new definition. EPA is proposing to reinstitute the old definition as it works on a new long-term replacement.

In a June 28 statement, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she had opposed the Obama administration rule because it would have been burdensome to Alaska.

She said she asked EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt “to carefully consider the impact that a new rule will have on Alaska, because two-thirds of our state is already considered wetlands.”

Comments are being sought on the issue of re-codifying the status quo “as an interim first step pending a substantive rulemaking to reconsider the definition of ‘waters of the United States’ and the best way to accomplish it.”

- KRISTEN NELSON