On April 21, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Army (Army) published the Navigable Waters Protection Rule in the Federal Register to finalize a revised definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act. The agencies are streamlining the definition so that it includes four simple categories of jurisdictional waters, provides clear exclusions for many waters features that traditionally have not been regulated, and defines terms in the regulatory text that have never been defined before. The four clear categories of waters that are federally regulated include:
· The territorial seas and traditional navigable waters
· Perennial and intermittent tributaries and those waters
· Certain lakes, ponds, and impoundments
· Wetlands adjacent to jurisdictional waters
The goal of the Navigable Waters Protection Rule is to regulate the nation’s “navigable waters” and the core tributary systems that provide perennial or intermittent flow into them. The rule delineates where federal regulations apply and gives state and local authorities more flexibility to determine how best to manage waters within their borders.
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