NAR President Kevin Sears was in attendance at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters as Administrator Lee Zeldin initiated a new effort to redefine Waters of the United States (WOTUS) to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Sackett v. EPA, which lifted Clean Water Act jurisdiction on many wetlands and other bodies of water.

The EPA also said wetlands protected under the Clean Water Act are only those that directly abut navigable waterways, according to new guidancepdf on how federal agencies shall respond to Sackett.

The EPA will pursue a "definition that is simple and durable and withstands the test of time," Zeldin said during an announcement in Washington. "This is to simply follow the rule of law."

The agency will hold a series of public "listening sessions" that will "inform any future administrative actions," such as a rulemaking on the definition of WOTUS, according to a draft Federal Register noticepdf the EPA published along with the guidance.

Waters and wetlands that have a physically-remote hydrological connection to traditionally navigable waters don't count as WOTUS, the new guidance says. The guidance will be implemented by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, which determines Clean Water Act jurisdiction in most states.

The approach is to issue guidance that is fairly limited and then plan for the rulemaking. The EPA has not identified specifically what the rulemaking is, but the EPA is starting with notice and comment of a possible rulemaking with major changes likely to come in the future.

Read EPA's new guidancepdf on how federal agencies shall respond to Sackett.

View the draft Federal Register noticepdf.