EPA lifts Obama-era WOTUS rules

Washington—The Environmental Protection Agency says it has finalized the repeal of the Obama-era clean water rules.

The Thursday afternoon announcement from the EPA lifts water protection rules that were proposed for large and small bodies of water across the nation during the Obama Administration. 

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler says some states already have protections against their waters. But the Trump administration will bring a strong network of coverage for the nation and: "restore the water we drink and the land we use and that means that property owners will spend less time and money fighting," said Wheeler.

The American Farm Bureau Federation says repealing the 2015 WOTUS rule is a victory for clean water and clear rules.
Don Parrish, AFBF senior director of regulatory relations, says the repeal is the result of grassroots efforts by Farm Bureau members and other active groups in agriculture.

“This is a huge win for Farm Bureau. It's one that has taken almost three years of this administration to do. It is one that will ultimately lead to another step, being a new regulation that provides the kind of clarity that I think our members deserve, that I think the public deserves, but it also provides protection for water quality," said Parrish.

The 2018 release said that the following bodies of water would be federally regulated: 

  1. Traditional navigable waters and tributaries to those waters; 
  2. "Certain" ditches; 
  3. "Certain" lakes and ponds; 
  4. Impoundments of jurisdictional waters; and 
  5. Wetlands adjacent to jurisdictional waters. 
The EPA rule also lays out what are not "waters of the United States," including the following: 
  1. Features that only contain water during or in response to rainfall; 
  2. Groundwater; 
  3. "Many" ditches, including most roadside or farm ditches; 
  4. Prior converted cropland; 
  5. Stormwater control features; and 
  6. And waste treatment systems. 
Parish says the new rule completely withdraws the 2015 WOTUS rule.

“What it means is we revert back to the rules that existed before 2015. The next step is to develop a rule that provides clarity and really draws a line on the landscape. On one side of the line, the waters are important enough that the federal government should regulate, on the other side of that the line, states should regulate,” said Parrish.

Farmers across the nation were burdened by Obama's WOTUS rules, many had creeks, canals and mud puddles on their land that would have fallen under proposed WOTUS rules. Parish says the new rule should take a more commonsense approach to regulate water.

“There’s a lot of things in place that is going to be protective of water quality. But we think it's going to be put into place in a commonsensical kind of fashion that allows farmers to continue to farm and improve the productivity of their land and do the kind of things that it's going to take to pass farmland down from generation to generation,” said Parrish.

The new rule will rollback rules back to the 1986 guidelines under the Clean Water Act but will face legal challenges from environmental groups. 

Administrator Wheeler said that the administration wants to get everything passed by winter "so when spring comes hardworking Americans will have the regulatory rules they need."

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