Federal Spotlight: EPA Set to Repeal WOTUS Rule

It is expected that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler will announce today the EPA is going to fully repeal the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. The announcement is likely to come this afternoon at the National Association of Manufacturers according to multiple news outlets. WOTUS was initially enacted under the Obama administration in 2015 and vastly expanded the definition of navigable waters under the Clean Water Act, which gave the federal government much more jurisdiction over waterways. The business and agriculture communities have argued this rule was an overreach and courts have put an injunction on the rule in numerous states across the country. The new definition for the regulation will likely be much more narrow in scope and published near the end of this year. Read more.