“On three prior occasions, this Court has tried to clarify the meaning of ‘the waters of the United States.’ But the problem persists. When we last addressed the question 17 years ago, we were unable to agree on an opinion of...more
EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers announced on Friday, December 30, 2022, the final, pre-publication version of a “Revised Definition of ‘Waters of the United States’ [“WOTUS”]” rule. This 2022 WOTUS Rule will become...more
You can be forgiven if you aren’t sure how jurisdictional waters are currently defined in the United States. Since 2015, the definition of Waters of the United States, or WOTUS, has changed more often than a college freshman...more
The Army Corps of Engineers issued a prepublication version of its Proposal to Reissue and Modify Nationwide Permits (NWPs) on August 3, 2020. The proposal would reissue all 52 existing nationwide permits, some with...more
The silence you are hearing is no one being surprised.
The limits of the phrase “waters of the United States” within the Clean Water Act (CWA) have been the subject of conflicting, confusing, and often divergent case law...more
On Monday, the United States District Court for the District of Montana issued an order amending its previous grant of summary judgment in Northern Plains Resource Council v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The original order...more
The Sierra Club filed suit on May 1, 2020, in federal district court in Texas arguing that Kinder Morgan’s Permian Highway pipeline should not go forward because the foundational permit is now void. The $2.2 billion Permian...more
Regulatory agencies frequently find themselves making decisions in the face of widely divergent viewpoints. Much like the heroine of the “Three Bears” nursery tale, these agencies often try to find a position that is “just...more