On September 27, 2017, WLF filed formal comments with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Army, strongly supporting the Agencies’ proposal to rescind their overly expansive 2015 definition of “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS). WLF noted that rescission merely preserves the status quo, because the 2015 WOTUS regulations have already been enjoined by the Sixth Circuit on a nationwide basis. WLF also argued that the regulations are both substantively and procedurally deficient. The Agencies in 2015 defined WOTUS in a manner that is far more expansive than what Congress intended when (by adopting the Clean Water Act) it authorized the agencies to regulate WOTUS. The 2015 regulations are also procedurally deficient, WLF argued, because the Agencies did not comply with procedural requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act when adopting the regulations.
