Supreme Court Ruling a Wild Card in Second EPA Waters Rulemaking

Uncertainty over whether a forthcoming Supreme Court ruling will upend federal Clean Water Act jurisdiction over streams and wetlands has attorneys expecting the EPA to reconsider its plans to write a second new definition of waters of the US in late 2023.

The EPA in December finalized a rule that maintains wide federal protections of waters and wetlands. The Trump administration vastly lifted those protections, and the new rule mostly reverts federal water jurisdiction to its status covering a wide array of streams and wetlands prior to 2015. A federal court tossed out the Trump rule in 2021.

The Biden ...