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EPA announces Clean Water Rule

The Environmental Protection Agency’s new Clean Water Rule is the result of two Supreme Court decisions in the last 15 years that put the decades-old Clean Water Act into question.

Administrator Gina McCarthy says cases in 2001 and 2006 put protection of 60 percent of U.S. streams and millions of acres of wetlands into question.

“Members of Congress, Supreme Court, farmers, ranchers, small business owners, hunters, anglers and others called on EPA and the Army to make a rule to clarify where the Clean Water Act applies.  So today we’re answering that call.”

During a teleconference with reporters, McCarthy says the new rule does not create any new permitting requirements while maintaining all previous exemptions and exclusions.

Jo-Ellen Darcy of the Army Corps of Engineers says this is what the new rule does in a nutshell.

“Traditional navigable waters like rivers and lakes, interstate waters and territorial seas are covered as they always have been.  No change.  Tributaries, which science defines by the physical signs of flowing water, are included because they can carry pollution downstream.”

Features that don’t meet the scientific and legal definition of a tributary, Darcy says, are not covered.

The rule also provides certainty on how far safeguards extend to nearby waters.

“The rule sets physical, measurable limits on covering nearby waters for the first time,” according to Darcy.  “For example, an adjacent water is protected if its in the 100 year flood plain, but not beyond 1,500 feet from a covered waterway.”

The Clean Water Rule, previously called the Waters of the U.S. Rule, can be viewed online at www.epa.gov.