On April 9, 2025, President Trump directed federal agencies to repeal certain categories of regulations in his memorandum entitled Directing the Repeal of Unlawful Regulations (“Memorandum”). In this Memorandum, President...more
More than 50 years ago, the Federal Clean Water Act (CWA or Act) was enacted by Congress to protect the quality of the Nation’s waters. The scope of that protection has been evolving ever since. Until relatively recently, the...more
The orders span various sectors and aim to introduce sunset provisions into regulations and eliminate regulations deemed unlawful or anti-competitive....more
As referenced in last month’s publication, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of the Army (Army) will be hosting numerous separate listening sessions with key stakeholders starting next...more
On Monday, March 24, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (the “EPA”) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the “Corps”) issued a Federal Register Notice soliciting stakeholder feedback concerning the implementation...more
The Environmental Protection Agency announced March 10 it will be revising the definition for the Waters of the United States Rule (WOTUS). In a news release it said, “[t]he agencies will move quickly to ensure that a revised...more
With its opinion in San Francisco v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court has again acted to "right" the implementation of the federal Clean Water Act by overturning a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit interpretation of the...more
On Aug. 28–29, 2024, approximately 50 people gathered at the University of California San Diego Extension to learn about the California State Water Resources Control Board’s (State Water Board) reissuance of the Construction...more
Discussion of administrative law usually doesn’t happen at the dinner table. But a series of recent US Supreme Court decisions may have changed this introducing talk of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the...more
The U.S. Supreme Court significantly reduced the scope of Clean Water Act regulation over wetlands last year in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency. Originally Published in Law360. ...more
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) on March 22, 2024, announced its plans for enhancing the protection of the country's wetlands following the U.S. Supreme Court's Sackett v. EPA decision. In Sackett, the Supreme Court...more
EPA picked another Clean Water Act fight with the United States Supreme Court last week and I don't understand why EPA thinks it is a fight it can win. As many of you know, the jurisdictional reach of the Clean Water Act is...more
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Sackett case in May of 2023, the U.S. EPA (“EPA”) and the U.S. Army Corps (“Army Corps”) have amended federal regulations to conform to Sackett and the Army Corps has resumed...more
One hundred eighteen Democratic members of the United States House of Representatives (“House”) introduced legislation titled: Clean Water Act of 2023(H.R. 5983) The stated purpose of H.R. 5983 is to address the...more
The third major development of 2023 for defining "Waters of the United States" ("WOTUS") has arrived. First, in early 2023, the United States Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") and the United States Army Corps of...more
In what has already been a major year for the Clean Water Act, there’s now another attempt to redefine its scope. On October 17, the Clean Water Act of 2023 was introduced by ranking member of the House Committee on...more
On September 8, U.S. EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers published a final conforming rule amending the definition of “waters of the United States” in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Sackett decision....more
Following years of administrative rulemaking and litigation, on September 8, 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) released a revision to the definition of waters of the United...more
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers recently announced a revised and final rule amending the definition of Waters of the United States (WOTUS) following the Supreme Court decision in Sackett v....more
On August 29, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a final rule revising the meaning of “waters of the United States” under the federal Clean Water Act (CWA). The revised...more
On Aug. 29, 2023, the Biden administration issued a prepublication version of yet another final Clean Water Act rule (“Conforming Rule”) revising the definition of “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) in response to the...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Corps of Engineers (collectively “EPA”) issued a pre-Federal Register publication final rule on August 29th revising the Clean Water Act definition of...more
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the final Clean Water Act (CWA) rule (New Rule) to comply with the US Supreme Court decision in Sackett v. EPA, 598 U.S. _, 143 S. Ct. 1322 (2023) (“Sackett”). This is a...more
On August 29, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) (collectively, the Agencies) released their amendment to January 2023 rule (January 2023 Rule) defining what...more
Just before the July 4th holiday, I was wondering out loud what was to be gained by having a Federal District Court decide the merits of a challenge to EPA's eighth attempt to determine the reach of the Clean Water Act. ...more