EPA And Army Corps Propose Narrower Definitions Affecting WOTUS Jurisdiction

EPA and Army Corps Propose Narrower Definitions Affecting WOTUS Jurisdiction

On Sept. 9, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) (collectively, the “Agencies”) published a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Proposed Rulemaking”) further revising the definition of “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) under the Clean Water Act.

The Proposed Rulemaking supplements the Agencies’ November 2025 proposed rule (“November Proposal”), which also sought to revise the WOTUS definition in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Sackett v. EPA.

• There, the Supreme Court found that WOTUS only encompasses waters that are “relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing,” and held that wetlands are jurisdictional waters only where they have “a continuous surface connection” to WOTUS.¹