Yesterday, President Trump issued an executive order (Order)
that will scale back the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's
(EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (Corps) hotly contested
"waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule. The Order
instructs EPA and the Corps to balance the interests between
protecting waters from pollution and promoting economic growth,
while respecting the States' role under the Constitution.
With this policy in mind, the EPA and the Corps are to issue a
proposed rule that will either rescind the current WOTUS rule, or
issue a revised rule. Any revised rule is expected to align with
the positions taken by Scott Pruitt, the recently confirmed EPA
Administrator, 31 states, as well as many local governments and
private industries including agriculture, real estate,
manufacturing, oil and gas recovery, and utilities, with respect to
which waters should be regulated as "waters of the United
States." It is anticipated that environmental groups
