On June 15th, EPA Admin EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt tweeted his agency finished work on a replacement for the so-called Waters of the U.S. rule, or WOTUS, and will send it to the White House for a final review.
The WOTUS rule was developed to protect smaller streams and wetlands and redefined which bodies of water are covered by the EPA’s pollution regulations; many farmers and other business groups worried it would have required them to obtain costly water pollution permits for creeks and streams that are, currently, unregulated. The new version of the rule is expected to that would include a narrower interpretation of which creeks, bogs, and marshes are protected under federal law and help redefine whether a waterway is subject to federal oversight for pollution control purposes (Bloomberg BNA, 6/15/18)
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt confirmed in a tweet that he is planning to send the Waters of the U.S. rewrite to the Office of Management and Budget on June 15th. "In keeping w/ @POTUS's promise, we have stopped the 2015 #WOTUS rule & I just announced to folks in Lincoln that a much more reasonable #WOTUS rule will be sent to OMB tomorrow," he said Thursday. "Time to provide farmers & ranchers nationwide w/ regulatory certainty.” (Politico PRO, 6/15/18)
