The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week released an updated Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule to confirm with a recent Supreme Court ruling.
EPA first issued a rule in January that substantially expanded the agency’s jurisdiction over wetlands across the U.S. However, the Supreme Court in May ruled against the EPA rule and removed the “significant nexus” test that the EPA used in the rule to determine whether waters or wetlands are covered under the Clean Water Act.
SCOTUS also forced EPA to revise its definition of “adjacent wetlands” that EPA used to gain jurisdiction over streams and wetlands that are adjacent to larger bodies of water.
EPA published its revised WOTUS rule this week without public notice and comment and noted that it had “good cause” to do so. “Because the sole purpose of this rule is to amend these specific provisions of the 2023 rule to conform with Sackett, and such conforming amendments do not involve the exercise of the agencies’ discretion, providing advance public notice and seeking comment is unnecessary,” EPA said.
The final rule can be found here and further information from EPA can be found here.
