EPA Has New Ammunition For 'Waters Of The U.S.'

A new report, designed to inform rulemaking on a controversial rule being developed by the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), strengthens the agencies’ position.

As certain politicians, industry groups, and citizens continue to push back on the EPA’s proposal to extend regulatory power under the “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule, the EPA is doing anything but backing down. Instead, you might say the agency is “doubling down” on their play, recently issuing a report through its own Office of Research and Development that amounts to a scientific defense of its contentions.

Published last month, “Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters: A Review and Synthesis of the Scientific Evidence” draws the following conclusion: “The scientific literature unequivocally demonstrates that streams, regardless of their size or frequency of flow, are connected to downstream waters and strongly influence their function.”

Translation: “Streams” containing even very little water have significant downstream impacts, and would therefore be justifiably regulated by the EPA/USACE under WOTUS.

Set to be finalized this spring, the pending WOTUS rule argues that streams, nontidal wetlands, and open waters, “singly [emphasis mine] or in aggregate, affect the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of downstream waters” such as rivers, lakes, estuaries, and oceans.

For those opponents who contend that the EPA wants to “regulate puddles in a massive ‘land grab,’” the conclusions rendered by the report, summarized here, are likely to only intensify those fears (which, for the record, are directly disputed by the EPA through their “Ditch the Myth” campaign).

To its credit, the EPA has done its due diligence in conducting and compiling the research, having reviewed more than 1,200 peer-reviewed documents for the final report.

Somehow I don’t think that will impress the rule’s objectors. As previously reported, concerns extend beyond the scope of the EPA's recent evidence-gathering effort.