^®: CRE Regulatory Action of the Week

EPA and Corps Propose New Waters of the United States Rules
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers seek public comments on their proposed revision of the regulatory definition of "Waters of the United States." The Agencies are conducting this rulemaking in response to the Executive Order signed on February 28, 2017, ''Restoring the Rule of Law, Federalism, and Economic Growth by Reviewing the 'Waters of the United States' Rule.''

The first step in this two-step process proposes to rescind the definition of ''waters of the United States'' in the Code of Federal Regulations. This proposed recession would re-codify the definition of ''waters of the United States,'' which currently governs administration of the Clean Water Act, pursuant to a decision issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit staying a definition of ''waters of the United States'' promulgated by the Agencies in 2015. The Agencies propose to recodify the definition of ''waters of the United States'' as it existed before the 2015 Clean Water Rule. In a second step, the Agencies will pursue notice-and-comment rulemaking in which they will conduct a substantive reevaluation of the definition of ''waters of the United States.'' The Agencies must receive comments on their first-step rescission and recodification proposal or before August 28, 2017.

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