Giving Clarity to WOTUS
Mary-Anna Holden is a former New Jersey BPU Commissioner and Butch Howard is a former South Carolina PSC Commissioner.
When it comes to wetlands, interpreting the Rules of the Clean Water Act can be as clear as mud. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin emphasized, in his NARUC Summer Policy Summit fireside chat with NARUC President Tricia Pridemore, the need for clarification addressing Waters of the United States (WOTUS) and their definition, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision commonly referred to as Sackett.
Proposed new rules were published in the Federal Register in March 2025 and listening sessions for public comment were held in April and May, in person, via the web and in written submission. Administrator Zeldin stated that all feedback to the EPA would be considered and to date, collaboration had taken place among the EPA, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Secretary of Defense, the Office of Management and Budget, and several Governors, Senators and Congresspeople, to get the new rules, direction, and definitions right.
We can recall, as members of the NARUC Committee on Water, the reports of Commissioners in Montana and North Dakota complaining that a watering ditch dug for their cattle was being determined as a WOTUS. A California farmer plowing a furrow for planting, was now accused of making a mini mountain sending runoff and silt into a ditch. And he had to pay a large fine.