Clean Water Rule: EPA To Use 2 Rulemakings To Repeal And Replace WOTUS

"U.S. EPA plans to repeal and replace the Clean Water Rule with two separate rulemaking processes, an EPA official told the Association of State Wetland Managers yesterday.

In a talk to the association's annual winter meeting, Mindy Eisenberg, acting director of the EPA wetlands division, said that the agency plans to first rescind the Obama administration's contentious regulation and then work on a new definition for "waters of the United States," according to multiple people who attended the meeting.

'This is an attempt to repeal and replace, but in this case the EPA has decided that it can repeal the regulation now and replace it later,' said Stephen Samuels, a former Department of Justice attorney who spoke to the association's meeting right before Eisenberg did."

Ariel Wittenberg reports for Greenwire April 12, 2017.