EPA, Clean Water Act

EPA Moves to Narrow Water Protections, Citing Supreme Court Ruling
The Clean Water Act’s ambiguous definition of "waters of the United States" led to a restrictive U.S. Supreme Court interpretation in 2023 following revisions of WOTUS under Presidents Obama, Trump, Biden — and now Trump again.
EPA signals it could narrow Clean Water Act protections
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has signaled that it could narrow which set of waters receive protections under the Clean Water Act. The law requires the EPA to protect so-called “waters of the United States” but there has been significant political back-and-forth as to which bodies of water that should include.
EPA likely to move to further limit federal protections for wetlands
The Trump administration on Wednesday announced it will reconsider the reach of the nation’s bedrock clean water law and likely further limit the wetlands it covers.
EPA Moves to Narrow Regulation of US Waterways
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced that it will narrow the definition of waters that can be federally regulated to comply with a 2023 Supreme Court decision, a move cheered by Republican lawmakers in agricultural states.
EPA moves to narrow protections for U.S. waterways, reversing Biden
The Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will narrow the definition of wetlands, rivers and other waterways that receive federal protections.
Supreme Court Rules the Clean Water Act Doesn’t Actually Require That Water Be Clean
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court substantially weakened federal limitations on raw sewage discharge into nearby bodies of water.
The New Republic on MSN10d
The Supreme Court Muddied the Clean Water Act Yet Again
Alito concluded that the Clean Water Act gave the EPA no authority to impose such end-result requirements on would-be ...
Great Lakes Now7d
What a recent Supreme Court ruling could mean for the future of the Clean Water Act
In a narrow 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled to limit the EPA's authority to issue broad water pollution permits under ...
Supreme Court Misses the Reality of EPA Clean Water Act Permits
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Robert Weinstock and Alexa Longstaff say there are shortcomings to the Supreme Court ...
JD Supra3d
Textualism Is More Than Dictionaries: The Supreme Court's Latest Clean Water Act Decision Looks to History and Context
When it rains too much in San Francisco, the city's wastewater treatment plant can get overloaded. An overloaded wastewater treatment plant means ...
‘Puddles and ditches’: California considers protecting wetlands from Trump order
Trump — once again — will rein in the nation's law protecting waterways. At stake are seasonal streams and ponds. The move is ...
Trump moves to unwind over two dozen US air, water regulations
The Trump administration announced a wave of regulatory rollbacks on Wednesday including a repeal of Biden-era emissions ...
Trump environmental rollbacks would boost pollution and endanger lives, former EPA heads say
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said he plans to roll back 31 key environmental rules on everything from clean air to climate ...
National Law Review5d
Supreme Court Limits Clean Water Act Permit Requirements in San Francisco v. EPA
On March 4, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court in City and County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency held that ...
JD Supra4d
A Divided SCOTUS Invalidates Common Provisions of Clean Water Act Permits
The dissent, authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, suggests that the legal theory of five-vote majority decision was largely of the Court’s own making and contends that its narrow interpretation of ...