Clean Water Rules: Trump Administration Reverses 2015 Rule, Goes Back To 1986 Standards

The Trump administration junked Obama-era clean water rules Thursday, ending a yearslong fight over how much power the federal government should have to protect wetlands.

The Waters of the United States rule had been blocked by court rulings in 28 states. Thursday’s action extended the refutation to the remaining 22 states and returned standards to 1986 levels.

“Today, EPA and the Department of the Army finalized a rule to repeal the previous administration’s overreach in the federal regulation of U.S. waters and recodify the longstanding and familiar regulatory text that previously existed,” said Andrew Wheeler, Environmental Protection Agency administer.

The 2015 rule put many lakes, streams, wetlands, storm-water controls and ditches – about 60 percent of the nation’s bodies of water – that feed larger waterways under federal control to protect drinking water. The larger waterways already had been protected by the 1972 Clean Water Act, which makes it illegal to pollute water without a permit. The question of what water is covered has been a matter of litigation, with conservatives favoring applying it to navigable waters only.

President Trump made deregulation a cornerstone of his presidential campaign and early on directed the Environmental Protection Agency to review the 2015 regulation with an eye toward eliminating it. He called the 2015 rule little more than a federal land grab that hurt farmers and other rural land owners.

“What we have today is a patchwork across the country,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler told the
Washington Post. “We need to have a uniform regulatory approach.

“We want to make sure that we have a definition that once and for all will be the law of the land in all 50 states.”

The American Farm Bureau Federation, which has been fighting the rule because it restricted farmland use near waterways, keeping farmers from using certain plowing methods and preventing certain crops from being planted because of fear of runoff from chemical pesticides and fertilizers, hailed Thursday's action.

“The rule that was developed in 2015 was a significant overreach,” Don Parrish, AFBF director of regulatory relations, told the New York Times. “It overstepped the limit of protecting clean water and tried to regulate land use. It created liabilities that can end up putting farmers in jail.”

Critics argue rolling back the rules will result in conversion of wetlands and headwaters, possibly threatening the nation’s water supply and damaging wildlife habitats.

Before the 1980s, Americans drained 220 million acres of swamps and marshlands in the 48 contiguous states, largely to expand the amount of arable farmland. The rate slowed during George H.W. Bush’s term as attention turned toward restoring wetlands.

“The administration wants to go back to an era where we are destroying wetlands heedlessly,” Robert Irvin, president of American Rivers, told the Post.

The repeal was announced at the headquarters of the National Association of Manufacturers and is expected to take effect shortly. The EPA and Army Corps of Engineers are writing a replacement rule, which is expected to be finalized by the end of the year.