The Trump administration has nearly finalized a much-anticipated revised definition of the waterways subject to EPA jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. The agency is moving ahead with the Waters of the U.S. rewrite and hopes to publish it for public comment by the end of this month. That’s encouraging to South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association Executive Director Jodie Anderson.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler says the new definition of navigable waters will be consistent with the views of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Anderson says that’s positive as the agency wants to make sure federal jurisdiction under the law only includes relatively permanent waters and wetlands.
She says the EPA under the Trump administration has made some positive moves lately in terms of how those regulations effect the livestock industry.
Wheeler says the Obama era WOTUS wasn’t about water quality, it was about power and federal overreach.
