EPA reverses course on clean water rule changes enacted by Trump administration

After long legal battles and extensive debate over the expansiveness of the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency repealed changes enacted by the Trump administration.

The controversy concerned a rule that defines which types of waterways in the U.S. receive federal water quality protections under the 1972 Clean Water Act. The restored rule revives protections for hundreds of thousands of rivers, lakes, streams, wetlands, and other bodies of water.

It also provides a more legally durable definition of the “waters of the United States” that receive federal protection. Farming groups, oil and gas producers, and real estate developers had criticized the regulations as overly burdensome to business.

The Biden administration’s action comes ahead of an anticipated Supreme Court ruling this year that could challenge the EPA’s ability to protect wetlands and other waters and negate the revisions.