TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Halt EPA and the Corps’ Overreaching Clean Water Act Regulation

Comment on Massive Expansion of Federal Jurisdiction in “Waters of the U.S.” Proposed Rule Next week, the House is expected to vote on H.R. 5078, the Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act.  This bill would halt the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (Corps) proposed rulemaking that redefines “waters of the U.S.” under the Clean Water Act (CWA) by preventing the agencies from developing guidance or interpretative rules based on it. The bill also requires the agencies to engage in a federalism consultation with state and local governments to form recommendations for a consensus regulatory proposal. Tell your Representative to vote in support of this important legislation. The EPA and Corps rule expansively defines waters – claiming traditionally navigable waters, tributaries (including ditches), impoundments, adjacent waters (including waters in the floodplain or riparian areas), and “other waters” all as federally jurisdictional. More projects will have to obtain Section 404 permits, increasing the time and cost of performing construction services. In addition to the Section 404 impacts, many other federal permits will be required. Under the proposal, many other parts of the CWA are affected by the definition of “waters of the U.S.,” such as Section 311 Oil Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures or Section 402 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) discharge permits, which are triggered by many types of construction activities across the nation and will therefore have a direct and significant impact on construction operations. EPA also chose to not wait for a final peer review of their Connectivity Report, touted as the basis of the proposed rule, by the EPA’s own Science Advisory Board. The economic analysis that EPA has undertaken seriously underestimates impacted acreage and also completely ignores impacts to non-404 programs.  Recognizing that state and local governments are currently managing water resources that are not under federal control, it is unclear why the agencies rushed through these important procedural steps designed to ensure that construction companies are protected. These state and local governments were also not consulted prior to the rulemaking. For more information, please contact Scott Berry at berrys@agc.org or (703) 837-5321.