The Obama-era WOTUS rule expanded Clean Water
Act jurisdiction to cover over 60% of bodies of water across the U.S.
The rollback will narrow the scope of the CWA to the 1986 standards in
place before the 2015 regulation while EPA continues work on a new
update to the rule.
"With this final repeal, the agencies will
implement the pre-2015 regulations, which are currently in place in more
than half of the states, informed by applicable agency guidance
documents and consistent with Supreme Court decisions and longstanding
agency practice," EPA said in a September 12 statement.
Repeal of the 2015 rule will be effective 60 days after being published in the Federal Register.