EPA intends to rescind or revise Clean Water Rule

EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have filed a Notice of Intent in the Federal Register to “review and rescind or revise” the Clean Water Rule. The President issued an Executive Order on February 28, 2017 “directing the EPA and the Army to review and rescind or revise” the 2015 Clean Water Rule. The Executive Order specifies that the EPA must consider the Supreme Court opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia in the Rapanos case when rewriting a rule to define which waters are protected by the Clean Water Act.

CWF’s comment is that this approach will reduce the reasonable protections to many of our streams and wetlands, as well as in sources of drinking water, and is contrary to the Clean Water Act that was passed by Congress in 1972 to regulate pollutant discharges into the waters of the US.

Here is the published Notice of Intent:

www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/03/06/2017-04312/intention-to-review-and-rescind-or-revise-the-clean-water-rule