Join Us For A Webinar On The Sackett Decision And Its Effect On WOTUS Permitting Nationwide

In January 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Agencies) adopted a final rule altering the definition of "waters of the United States" (WOTUS), a key term that is referred to but not defined in the Clean Water Act (CWA) and is crucial for determining CWA permitting jurisdiction. The Agencies' stated purpose in adopting the rule was to better comply with the CWA by repealing and replacing a definition of WOTUS that had previously been adopted during the Trump administration; however, promulgation of the rule prompted multiple lawsuits that once again split the nation into two separate CWA permitting frameworks.

In May 2023, the long-anticipated U.S. Supreme Court decision, Sackett v. EPA, added to the confusion by narrowing the types of features that could be considered WOTUS in a manner that had not been anticipated by the January rule or the Trump administration's rule preceding it. The Agencies