By B. KAY RICHTER
NEA Town Courier
Assistant Editor
A webinar discussing the WOTUS definition after the Supreme Court ruling is the subject of a public webinar hosted on July 19 by the National Agricultural Law Center.
According to Brigit Rollins, a staff attorney for the NALC, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will most likely have to revisit the 2023 definition of WOTUS because the rule is out of step with the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling.
Registration for the webinar is online and free to the public.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett vs. Environmental Protection Agency determined that only those wetlands that share a continuous surface connection with a water body recognized under the WOTUS definition can be regulated under the Clean Water Act, or CWA. Rollins says this has created some inconsistencies with the EPA’s 2023 definition of WOTUS which includes some wetlands that do not share a surface connection with another body of water.
The CWA requires anyone who might introduce pollutants into a body of water to acquire a permit from the EPA. Those lacking a permit can result in fines and criminal prosecution under the CWA.
“In particular, the Sackett opinion limits what wetlands can be covered by the Clean Water Act beyond what the EPA included in its 2023 rule," Rollins said.
The webinar will be held Wednesday, July 19, at 11 a.m. Central/noon Eastern. Rollins said she looks forward to shedding some light on the court's recent ruling and what that may mean for the definition of WOTUS moving forward.
The July 19 webinar is the second in a series regarding WOTUS. The information and recording for the first part, “What’s Up with WOTUS: An Overview of ‘Waters of the United States’ and Why it Matters to Agriculture,” can also be found online.
For information about the National Agricultural Law Center, visit nationalaglawcenter.org.