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1 1 (October 7, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveeqa0001 and id is 1 raw text is: S Congressional ______ SResearch Service What's Next for WOTUS: Recent Litigation and Next Steps in Redefining Waters of the United States October 7, 2021 On September 3, 2021, the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that they halted implementation of the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which defined waters of the United States (WOTUS) for purposes of establishing the scope of Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction. The announcement followed a federal district court decision on August 30 in Pasqua Yaqui Tribe v. EPA, in which the court remanded and vacated the rule. Although the agencies had requested that the court allow implementation of the rule while they developed a new definition of WOTUS through the rulemaking process, the court instead agreed with parties challenging the rule who argued that it should be vacated immediately. The court's vacatur of the Trump-era Navigable Waters Protection Rule requires the Corps and EPA revert to an older regulatory definition while the Biden Administration undertakes its rulemaking process to redefine WOTUS. This Sidebar discusses recent developments in the litigation surrounding the Corps and EPA's efforts to define WOTUS. A companion CRS Report provides more in-depth discussion of the actions taken by the Obama, Trump, and Biden Administrations to define WOTUS, along with related legislation and case law. Overview of Agency Efforts to Define WOTUS The CWA prohibits discharging certain pollutants into the waters of the United States, including the territorial seas without a permit. The statute does not define waters of the United States, however. Congress, the courts, stakeholders, and the Corps and EPA-the two agencies responsible for administering the CWA-have long debated how to interpret the term, and thus the scope of waters that are federally regulated. Prior to 2015, regulations promulgated by the Corps in 1986 and EPA in 1988 were in effect. The Corps and EPA also issued guidance in 2003 and 2008 to clarify the scope of CWA. Several Supreme Court decisions, most notably Rapanos v. United States in 2006, prompted the agencies to consider changes that would clarify the scope of WOTUS. In 2015, the Corps and EPA issued the Clean Water Rule, which redefined WOTUS in the agencies' regulations for the first time since the 1980s. Under both the 2015 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10646 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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