EPA Expected to Announce New Definition of Waters Protected Under Clean Water Act

The EPA released a statement saying it would make a major water policy announcement on Tuesday.

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The Environmental Protection Agency is widely expected to announce plans to change the definition of which waters in the United States are protected under the Clean Water Act on Tuesday -- a change President Donald Trump has been working toward since the beginning of his presidency.

The announcement is expected to be a policy shift from former President Barack Obama's 2015 Waters of the United States regulation. Obama's rule changed the definition of which bodies of water the federal government had authority over to include streams and wetlands so that the government could ensure that those waterways remained pollution-free. It altered the definition from the initial one established by the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers in the 1980s.

Obama's regulation was created under the Clean Water Act, which regulates discharges of pollutants into waters in the US. Under the Clean Water Act, it's illegal to discharge pollutants from a source into "navigable waters," according to the EPA.
The EPA has been working toward a replacement of the regulation since Trump took office. In February 2017, less than two months after his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order asking the EPA and the Department of the Army to review Obama-era water regulations and make sure they are not harming the economy.

Read the full article on CNN

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