Responding to the US Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Sackett v. EPA, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) published a final rule (Sackett Rule), effective 8 September...more
It is rare for the U.S. Supreme Court to construe a statutory phrase on multiple occasions. And yet now, for purposes of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA or the Act), it has rendered no less than four interpretations of the...more
On 30 December 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) (together, the Agencies) released a final rule redefining the scope of waters protected under the Clean Water Act...more
On 18 November 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the "Corps") (together, the Agencies) released the pre-publication version of the proposed rule redefining the scope of...more
On January 23, 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) finalized the Navigable Waters Protection Rule (Rule) to define “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). ...more
Last month the Trump Administration announced a proposed rule that would dramatically reduce the scope of federal authority under the Clean Water Act (“Act”). If finalized in its current form, the rule would eliminate federal...more
In a rebuke to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”), the United States Supreme Court unanimously held on May 31, 2016, in Corps v. Hawkes that jurisdictional determinations (“JDs”) under the Clean Water Act are...more
For 30 years developers, agencies and courts have struggled over defining the purview of Clean Water Act jurisdiction (“CWA” or the “Act”). However, three U.S. Supreme Court rulings and a revised federal rule attempting to...more
On October 9, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a stay of the Obama Administration’s new rule defining the scope of federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. The stay postpones...more
On May 12, 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (collectively, the “Services”) issued notices of proposed rules and a proposed policy related to the designation of...more