Trump Administration Announces Final New WOTUS Rule
There is good news regarding a federal water policy that impacts not only our industry, but those in agriculture as well as property owners in general. Dallas BA has played a key advocacy role on this policy in recent years.
On Jan. 23, the Trump Administration announced the final new “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule, clarifying the limits of federal jurisdiction over certain water bodies. The new rule corrects the dangerous overreach of the 2015 WOTUS definition by excluding most man-made ditches, isolated ponds on private property and other private or temporary water features from federal jurisdiction. These types of water features should never have been considered “navigable waters” under the Clean Water Act. The new WOTUS rule is a common sense approach that continues environmental protection while reducing permit requirements for projects that were not intended for that type of oversight.
Dallas Builders Association hosted the former Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency in 2017 for a policy roundtable to give direct feedback from home builders and developers affected by the 2015 WOTUS Rule. Dallas BA members were able to better explain how little land would be left unregulated in Texas and how the overreaching rule could threaten housing affordability.
In September of 2019, Dallas BA hosted EPA Region 6 Administrator Ken McQueen, who announced the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of the Army’s finalization of the repeal of the problematic 2015 “waters of the United States” rule.