The Supreme Court will take another shot at deciding the scope of the Clean Water Act, granting a petition to determine whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit "set forth the proper test for determining whether wetlands are 'waters of the United States'" under the CWA.
On November 18, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of the Army (the agencies) announced a proposed rule to re-establish the pre-2015 definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) which had been in place for decades, updated to reflect consideration of Supreme Court decisions. This action advances the agencies’ goal of establishing a durable definition of WOTUS that protects public health, the environment, and downstream communities while supporting economic opportunity, agriculture, and other industries that depend on clean water. This proposed rule would support a stable implementation of “waters of the United States” while the agencies continue to consult with states, Tribes, local governments, and a broad array of stakeholders in both the implementation of WOTUS and future regulatory actions.
Congress enacted the Clean Water Act in 1972 with the statutory objective “to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.”
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall commented on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed rule to replace the Navigable Waters Protection Rule.
LICA and other industry groups will have ample opportunities to share views on how the EPA and Army should finalize this significant rulemaking. Due to CDC guidelines, public hearings will be virtual but written comments will be accepted by February 7, 2022.
Any longtime observer – doesn’t matter Democrat or Republican - of Congress quickly concludes that this Congress is not very good when it comes to meeting legislative deadlines. Like really bad. It’s both parties that are failing to get their jobs done. And both parties are guilty of allowing institutional weaknesses to fester that makes it quite difficult to legislate.
Lock and Dam No. 25 on the Mississippi River near St. Louis is more than 80 years old and in need of renovation, so farm-funded groups are joining to try to get the work started by injecting $1 million into the process.
Total construction spending edged higher in October, as gains in public and private project types outmatched decreases in single- and multifamily residential outlays, according to a new analysis of federal construction spending data the Associated General Contractors of America released today. Officials noted that public sector investments would likely rise in the near future because of the recently-passed infrastructure bill, but cautioned that labor shortages and supply chain problems were posing significant challenges for the industry.
The Department of Agriculture is providing a fresh $1.15 billion in ReConnect program funding to expand broadband availability in rural communities. The new funding will be available for projects in areas where 90% of households lack service with download speeds of 100 megabits per second download speeds and upload speeds of 20 Mbps.
As dam failures and incidents occur both nationally and internationally, there is a pressing need to understand the underlying causes for failure to help minimize such occurrences in the future. Current information on historical dam incidents is scattered, incomplete, missing, and sometimes misleading – making it difficult for owners and practitioners to easily access meaningful information that could assist them with critical design and operational decisions. If lessons learned and best practices are not effectively communicated, there is a possibility that poor practices will be repeated, and preventable incidents will not be averted.