Clean Water Act
Federal Agencies Announce Supplemental Proposed “Waters of the United States” Rule
On September 9, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SNPRM) seeking comment on proposed additional revisions to the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act (CWA). This SNPRM builds on the agencies’ November 2025 Notice of…
Army Corps Reissues and Modifies Nationwide Permits, Adding One New Permit
March 15, 2026 marked the start of a new five-year cycle for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Nationwide Permits (NWPs). Pursuant to a final rule published on January 8, 2026, the Corps has reissued and modified 56 existing NWPs and created one new NWP. This blog post highlights key changes in the 2026 NWPs,…
Federal Agencies Propose New Regulations Defining “Waters of the United States”
On November 20, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of the Army (Agencies) published a proposed rule, “Updated Definition of Waters of the United States” (Proposed Rule). If finalized, the rule would implement the Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. EPA, discussed in a prior SPR blog post. The Agencies note that the…
U.S. EPA Finalizes Rule Requiring Facility Response Plans for Hazardous Substance Discharges
On March 28, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule requiring certain onshore facilities to prepare Facility Response Plans (FRPs) for the worst-case discharges of Clean Water Act (CWA) hazardous substances. FRPs are due to EPA by June 1, 2027, or prior to the start of operations for facilities constructed after…
EPA Broadens Efforts to Address PFAS Contamination in Water Bodies
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s efforts to address contamination by per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) continue to rapidly evolve. Although federal efforts were initially focused on PFAS in drinking water, EPA has recently begun to address PFAS in a wider variety of sources, including wastewater and stormwater. In April of this year, EPA brought its…
Supreme Court Significantly Curtails Federal Jurisdiction over Wetlands in Sackett v. EPA
On May 25, 2023, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Sackett v. EPA, ruling that federal jurisdiction over wetlands under the Clean Water Act (CWA or the Act), which prohibits discharging pollutants into “the waters of the United States” (WOTUS), extends to only those wetlands with a continuous surface connection to WOTUS. The Sackett…