Trump Sends WOTUS Back for Review

President Donald Trump ordered his administration to rescind and rewrite an Obama-era environmental rule that critics say gave the US government too much power to regulate waterways nationwide. Trump promised during his campaign to withdraw the measure, describing it as a classic case of federal overreach. The National Association of Manufacturers, for example, says the rule is another regulatory burden that expands the federal government’s reach into manufacturers’ onsite activities. The likely outcome is years of continued political and legal wrangling over a long-contested issue. The 1972 federal Clean Water Act made it illegal to pollute “navigable waters of the United States”. It also covered lands adjacent to such waters. However, as pollution in smaller waterways such as streams and wetlands doesn’t stay put, but makes its way into rivers and bays, for many years the act was applied broadly.

Opponents of the rule fear it would actually increase Clean Water Act jurisdiction by a far greater margin than 3 percent, creating more red tape for farmers, ranchers and developers at a questionable environmental benefit. “This executive overreach ignored the private property rights of Alabama farmers and is the ideal example of another one-size-fits-all approach from Washington that fails to recognize the unique needs of each community or the role of state and local government”.

Even if a small portion of one of these neighboring wet features fall within the guidelines, the entire body falls under the new WOTUS rule, regardless of its connection to downstream waters. The intent is to either rescind or revise the rule so that the country’s navigable waters are protected from pollution, “while at the same time promoting economic growth, minimizing regulatory uncertainty, and showing due regard for the roles of the Congress and the States under the Constitution”.

“The rule would illegitimately add thousands of private bodies of water – from farm ditches to dry creek beds – to the definition of what the government can regulate”, Jenkins said in a statement posted Tuesday on Facebook.

“When they do flow, they would carry pollutants to the Kansas River”, she said.

“California water quality law goes above and beyond the Clean Water Law”, Fisher said. Among them: “prairie pothole” wetlands in the Upper Midwest that Ducks Unlimited calls “the most important and threatened waterfowl habitat in North America”.

The following November, Denham wrote a letter, which was backed by 28 additional members of Congress, that urged immediate action on Trump’s part upon taking office to repeal WOTUS.

According to news source Reuters, the executive order is expected to be the first step in the process of undoing the Obama-era WOTUS rule.

“It is in the national interest to ensure that the nation’s navigable waters are kept free from pollution, while at the same time promoting economic growth, minimizing regulatory uncertainty, and showing due regard for the roles of the Congress and the States under the Constitution”, the Executive Order, issued on February 28, reads. United States (2006). In response to that decision, the agencies issued guidance regarding CWA jurisdiction in 2007, and revised it in 2008. As Vox reported, this process includes “proposing a new rule that’s supported by extensive scientific and legal arguments, opening up the proposal for public comments, responding to those comments and then defending the final rule in court as a superior approach”. Environmental groups would be certain to challenge a rule based on the Scalia standards, saying it ignores scientific evidence.