Last week the draft Clean Water Act rules were leaked by House Science, Space and Technology Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas). “This could be the largest expansion of EPA regulatory authority ever,” he said in a statement. “If the draft rule is approved, it would allow the EPA to regulate virtually every body of water in the United States, including private and public lakes, ponds and streams.”
The draft rules direct EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to assert jurisdiction over all tributaries, regardless of size and flow, and all lakes, ponds and wetlands within a floodplain. The proposed rule is intended to reduce documentation requirements of areas that may have been questionable in the past. The intention is to establish firm rules that reduce the number of case-by-case studies that may have resulted in a water body being non-jurisdictional in the past. More about this including links to the rules can be found on our blog posting: http://swampschool.org/blog/leaked-new-wetland-rules/
