CWA Rollback Adopts Narrower New Jurisdiction Test Than Current Rules

EPA's proposed rollback of the Obama-era Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction standard limits the law's reach of tributaries and wetlands to features that contribute flow to navigable waterways in “a typical year,” a new model that appears to create a much narrower jurisdiction test than the existing “significant nexus” standard. “Our goal was to provide the fewest number of categories for waters” considered jurisdictional in order to make the rule easier to apply in the field, said EPA water chief...