Step One - Repeal
Final Rule: Definition of "Waters of the United States" - Recodification of Pre-Existing Rules
On October 22, 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of the Army (the agencies) published a final rule (“Step One”) to repeal the 2015 Rule defining “waters of the United States” and re-codify the regulatory text that existed prior to the 2015 Rule. The final rule will become effective on December 23, 2019. With this final rule, the agencies will implement the pre-2015 Rule regulations as informed by applicable agency guidance documents and consistent with Supreme Court decisions and longstanding agency practice.
As a result of litigation over the 2015 Rule, the 2015 Rule currently applies in 22 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Territories, while the pre-existing regulations apply in more than half the states. The agencies took the final “Step One” action to provide regulatory certainty and to eliminate the ongoing patchwork of regulation pending the agencies’ separate rulemaking on a proposed revised definition of “waters of the United States” (“Step Two”). With the final Step One rule, the agencies will maintain a longstanding regulatory framework that is more familiar to and better-understood by the agencies, states, tribes, local governments, regulated entities, and the public while the agencies consider public comments on the proposed revised definition of “waters of the United States.” Additionally, this action will remedy the procedural defects underlying the 2015 Rule and certain substantive deficiencies recently identified bythe U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of Texas and the Southern District of Georgia.
- Read the Final Rule Repealing the 2015 Rule
- Read the Economic Analysis for the Final Step One Rule
- Read the Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
- Read the Proposed Step One Repeal Rule
- Read the Economic Analysis for the Proposed Step One Repeal Rule
- Access all materials in the Docket
Public Comment - Step One
Open Public Comment Period
There are currently no open public comment periods.
Closed Public Comment Periods
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Army (the agencies) sought additional comment on the proposed Repeal of the 2015 Rule through a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking. The public comment period closed on August 13, 2018.
The initial proposed Step One rule public comment period closed on September 27, 2017, following a 30-day extension of the comment period.
Comments can be found in the docket.