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U.S. EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have developed draft guidance for determining whether a waterway, water body, or wetland is protected by the Clean Water Act. This guidance would replace previous guidance to reaffirm protection for critical waters. It also will provide clearer, more predictable guidelines for determining which water bodies are protected by the Clean Water Act. The Agencies' Joint draft guidance was open for a public comment period of 60 days, which was then extended to July 31st, 2011 to allow all stakeholders to provide input and feedback before it is finalized. For a link to the Proposed Guidance, click here. For links to the draft guidance as well as background information, visit the Corps' website here and EPA's website. For the Federal Registry Notice, click here.
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Friday, 30 March 2012 13:02 |
Contact: Matt Dempsey – Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works – March 28, 2012 U.S. Senators John Barrasso (R-WY) Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Dean Heller (R-NV) and 26 other Senators introduced legislation to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from taking over all private water in the United States. The "Preserve the Waters of the U.S. Act" prevents the EPA and the Army Corp of Engineers (Corps) from using their overreaching "guidance" to change legal responsibilities under the Clean Water Act (CWA). For full press release, click here. For other background materials on CWA Guidance issues, click here.
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Friday, 09 December 2011 15:46 |
Environmental Law Institute: America's Vulnerable Waters: Assessing the Nation's Portfolio of Vulnerable Aquatic Resources since Rapanos v. United States
August 2011In the United States, wetlands, streams, and other aquatic resources are protected by a combination of federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and policies. At the federal level, aquatic resources are regulated under the Clean Water Act (CWA). In this report, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) finds that 25 states do not have laws in place to protect streams, wetlands, and other waters if the federal Clean Water Act does not apply to those waters. This finding, based on extensive review of thousands of specific local examples, demonstrates if the Clean Water Act does not protect critical waters, those waters are by no means guaranteed protection under state law. To go directly to the report (PDF), click here. |
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Friday, 09 December 2011 15:43 |
By Bob Stokes – Houston Chronicle – September 23, 2011In April of this year, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps of Engineers issued draft guidance for determining whether a waterway, water body or wetland is protected by the Clean Water Act (CWA). This wetlands guidance is necessary because over the past decade, several U.S. Supreme Court rulings have removed certain critical waters and wetlands from protection under the CWA. These rulings limiting the definition of a jurisdictional wetland have been felt acutely in the Galveston Bay area, as thousands of acres of our prairie pothole wetlands have been determined to no longer be protected under the CWA. Fortunately, the wetlands guidance would bring these wetlands back under the protection of the CWA and reaffirm the intent of the act by protecting all "waters of the United States." For full article, click here.
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Monday, 03 October 2011 00:00 |
EPA’s Regulatory Development and Retrospective Review Tracker – October 2011 After U.S. Supreme Court decisions in SWANCC and Rapanos, the scope of "waters of the US" protected under all CWA programs has been an issue of considerable debate and uncertainty. The Act has a single definition for "waters of the United States." As a result, these decisions affect the geographic scope of all CWA programs.
SWANCC and Rapanos did not invalidate the current regulatory definition of "waters of the United States." However, the decisions established important considerations for how those regulations should be interpreted, and experience implementing the regulations has identified several areas that could benefit from additional clarification through rulemaking. U.S. EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are developing a proposed rule for determining whether a waterway, water body, or wetland is protected by the Clean Water Act. This rule would make clear which waterbodies are protected under the Clean Water Act. The projected date for publication of a proposed rule in the Federal Register is January 2012. For more information, click here.
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Thursday, 18 August 2011 00:00 |
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The organizations below (ASWM, ECOS, et. al.) are pleased to provide the following comments in response to proposed guidance regarding the scope of jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act, as published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) in the Federal Register on May 2, 2011. The guidance has been jointly reviewed by the signatory agencies and organizations that collectively support water resource protection and management interests of the states, as undersigned. While some of us may have additional comments specific to the concerns of our individual organizations, and will be submitting those comments separately, we all agree on a number of key points. To read full letter, click here. |
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Last Updated on Thursday, 18 August 2011 15:26 |
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