A proposed new rule sent to the White House for interagency on review Sept. 17 aims to clarify which waters and wetlands are protected under the Clean Water Act. The rule from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers attempts to provide greater clarity about which waters are subject to Clean Water Act jurisdiction and greater certainty about which activities require Clean Water Act permits. The EPA’s Science Advisory Board released for public comment a draft scientific report, “Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters: A Review and Synthesis of the Scientific Evidence.” This report combines more than 1,000 peer-reviewed articles about how smaller, isolated water bodies are connected to larger ones and represents the state-of-the-science on the connectivity and isolation of waters in the United States. To read more, click here.
