The Environmental Protection Agency removed federal protections for the majority of the nation’s wetlands on Tuesday in accordance with the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
The EPA and Department of the Army announced an official rule that amends the definition of “waters in the United States” in light of the ruling made in Sackett V. EPA in May that narrowed the extent that the Clean Water Act and the agency’s ability to regulate wetlands and waterways.
Environmentalists and developers have fought for years over the nature that the 1972 Clean Water Act in protecting the waterways and wetlands.
“While I am dismayed by that Supreme Court’s ruling regarding Sackett, I am also disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett decision, EPA and Army have the obligation of implementing this decision along with our state regulators, Tribes, and partners,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan made a statement in the form of an announcement.
In 2006, a Supreme Court decision determined that wetlands could be protected if they have an “significant relationship” in major waters. The decision of the court this year reversed the test. The new rule of the EPA “removes the test of significant nexus in determining water bodies and tributaries as federally protected waters,” the agency stated.
The court’s decision came in May. Justice Samuel Alito declared that that the water bodies that can be navigable U.S. waters regulated by the EPA under the Clean Water Act do not include wetlands previously controlled by the EPA. The court’s decision was written by Alito. he stated that the law applies to only oceans, streams, lakes and rivers, and wetlands that have the “continuous connection to their surface bodies.”
The EPA announced that the new rule will be in effect immediately. “The agencies have issued this change to the 2023 rule quickly within three months of decision by the Supreme Court decision — to clarify the situation and provide an avenue to move forward that is in line with the decision,” the agency said.
In the wake of the rule change, protections to many waterways and wetlands are now going to be transferred to the states.
Environmental groups say the new rule accentuates the shortcomings in the Supreme Court decision.
“While the Administration’s policy attempts to safeguard clean water and wetlands, it’s severely limited in its capacity to accomplish this goal due to the Supreme Court ruling which slashed federal protections for thousands of miles of tiny streams and wetlands” stated the organization American Rivers. “This means that communities throughout in the U.S. are now more susceptible to flooding and pollution. Streams and wetlands aren’t just important sources for drinking water, but they also act as buffers against floodwaters and extreme storms.”
“This decision outlines the way it is that the Sackett decision has affected our ability to stop the devastation of our national wetlands which are designed to protect drinking water, hold back floods and serve as the habitat needed by wildlife” declared Jim Murphy who is the National Wildlife Foundation’s director of advocacy for the law. “Congress should take a stand to safeguard the water we drink, the wildlife as well as our lifestyle.”
Some business groups have claimed that the rollback by the EPA was not sufficient.
Courtney Briggs, chair of the Waters Advocacy Coalition, said federal agencies “have made the decision to disregard” the limitations of their authority. “This modified rule does not fully comply with Supreme Court precedent and with the restrictions on regulatory jurisdiction stipulated by the Clean Water Act,” she wrote in an announcement.
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