The Supreme Court’s Clean Water Act decision restricting the federal government’s jurisdiction over “adjacent” wetlands prompted warnings that millions of acres of wetlands could be at risk, but the ruling generated cheers from farm groups that have fought for decades to limit the interpretation of the 50-year-old law.
The Trump administration’s proposed new definition of “waters of the United States” in the Clean Water Act is either a radical policy shift that misinterprets Supreme Court precedent and will leave up to 70 percent of tributaries and half the nation’s wetlands unprotected, or it’s a constitutionally valid approach to regulating the nation’s waters that preserves the states’ lead role over water pollution control and land use planning.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) provided comments to the Environmental Protection Agency in a letter regarding proposed changes to certain provisions of the Clean Water Act.
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.