"The Two Words That Rewrote American Water Policy"

"The strange tale of how a Supreme Court justice accidentally triggered the biggest new water rule in a decade."

"When the Obama administration released its sweeping new wetlands rule in early summer 2015, it detonated across the American heartland like a bomb. Known by its nickname WOTUS, for Waters of the United States, the 75-page document laid out a new and ambitious definition of what streams, rivers and wetlands are within Washington’s mandate to protect—a change that could affect everyone from farmers to developers to oil and gas producers.

The fight began immediately and hasn’t let up since. Within hours of the rule appearing in the Federal Register, the first lawsuit hit. A week later there were more than a dozen, and today the more 150 litigants in nearly 40 separate suits are duking it out over which court should hear the challenges while an appellate court has put the rule on hold nationwide. The rule touched a particular nerve in farm country, where producers already feel overregulated by Washington, and among developers, who have to pay for expensive wetlands determinations and even more expensive mitigation schemes.

The battle over WOTUS is the latest, and perhaps the last, of the big fights over Obama’s late-term policy moves; it has already triggered endless coverage, analysis, and even a viral spoof music video from the Missouri Farm Bureau, mocking the government for trying to regulate dry ditches as waterways. Like the Clean Power Plan also released last summer, the rule can be seen as a classic power struggle between environmentalists trying to solidify protections and the industries—like agriculture, homebuilding and mining—who don't want their hands tied by out-of-touch greens."

Annie Snider reports for Politico May 25, 2016.