The Trump administration is making its first foray into the longstanding controversy over the meaning of “waters of the U.S.” in the Clean Water Act, issuing guidance Wednesday to align its policy with the Supreme Court’s Sackett decision.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin also said that his agency and the Army Corps of Engineers would begin the work of coming up with a new rule to define WOTUS, which is interpreted one way in 24 states and the District of Columbia and another away in the remaining 26.

Bodies of water that fall under the WOTUS definition are subject to federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act.

EPA and the Corps released what they called a “memorandum to the field” Wednesday to conform their WOTUS interpretation with the 2023 Sackett decision.

That opinion struck down a previous Supreme Court decision’s “significant nexus” test and said that for wetlands to be regulated, they needed to have a “continuous surface connection to bodies that are ‘waters of the United States’ in their own right, so that there is no clear demarcation between ‘waters’ and ‘wetlands.’”

The memorandum says that under either the Biden administration’s 2023 WOTUS rule or the pre-2015 regulatory regime being used in states where the Biden rule is enjoined, the agencies will interpret “waters of the United States” to include “only those adjacent wetlands that have a continuous surface connection because they directly abut the [requisite jurisdictional water] (e.g., they are not separated by uplands, a berm, dike, or similar feature).”

Zeldin said EPA and the Corps would work quickly to get a new rule written.

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“I am highly, highly confident that we are going to be able to complete this rulemaking without any delay whatsoever,” he told reporters.

He acknowledged that the 2023 rule would have to be withdrawn – a process that requires the agencies gather public comment.

“There are several things that are going to happen as part of this process,” he said. “Our goal is to do it all concurrently as much as possible, to be able to to get this done as quick as we can.”

Republican lawmakers attending the event included Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman of Arkansas, and Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Katie Britt of Alabama and  Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. Reps. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin and Doug LaMalfa of California also attended.

Previous administrations, including those of Biden, Trump’s first, and Obama have all tried to craft rules that would stand the test of time, but all attempts at doing so have been met with lawsuits that resulted in the need for color-coded maps of the U.S. showing which regulatory regime is in effect.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said producers need to have an easily understood rule.

“I’m a farmer, and I need a rule that's on one page that's sitting on the dash of my truck. …  That's what the goal should be. It should be that simple," he said.

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