Last day to comment on WOTUS

Comments will close Wednesday, Sept. 27, on the proposal to rescind the EPA’s 2015 WOTUS rule. If WOTUS is rescinded, the definition of a water of the U.S. will revert to the more restricted definition established by caselaw prior that was used prior to 2015. WOTUS was drafted in part because the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers claimed that working definition was not clear. Opponents to WOTUS however have asserted that the 2015 rule did not clarify the definition, but instead sought to expand the definition—and thereby EPA jurisdiction via the Clean Water Act—well beyond congressional intent. President Donald Trump has indicated he wants the EPA, in crafting a new WOTUS rule, to abide by the more restricted definition of a water of the U.S. as set out in then-Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion in the Rapanos v. United States case. Comments can be submitted online at www.regulations.gov using the Docket ID# EPA-HQ-OW-2017-0203-0001. As of press time, almost 184,000 comments had been submitted.