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  • 27 April 2022 – Water Quality Certifications and USACE Permitting

    On April 6, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of the October 2021 order by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that vacated EPA’s 2020 Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Rule.

  • 5 April 2022 – Army Corps of Engineers Announces the Release of Automated Wetland Determination Data Sheets (ADS)

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) announces the release of the ENG Forms 6116 (1-9), Automated Wetland Determination Data Sheet (ADS), and the associated “User Guide for Automated Wetland Determination Data Sheets.” These documents are available at the USACE Regulatory Headquarters website in both Portable Document Format (PDF) and Microsoft Excel (Excel) file formats. Practitioners should, at a minimum, utilize the PDF versions of the Office of Management and Budget approved forms to document the presence or absence of wetlands for the applications related to the administration of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Rivers and Harbors Act (RHA). The Excel-based ADS is an optional tool. However, the PDF versions do not provide the automated features found in the Excel-based versions.

  • 28 March 2022 – Army announces a formal review of Nationwide Permit 12

    The Department of the Army announced the publishing of a Federal Register notice to initiate a formal review of Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12 for Oil or Natural Gas Pipeline Activities. This review includes a series of public and tribal virtual meetings in May 2022 to gather input to inform future potential decision-making related to NWP 12 as well as a public docket to gather written comments during a 60-day comment period

  • 5 January 2022 – Navigable Waters Protection Rule Vacatur

    The Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“the agencies”) are in receipt of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona’s August 30, 2021, order vacating and remanding the Navigable Waters Protection Rule in the case of Pascua Yaqui Tribe v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In light of this order, the agencies have halted implementation of the Navigable Waters Protection Rule (“NWPR”) nationwide and are interpreting “waters of the United States” consistent with the pre-2015 regulatory regime until further notice. The agencies are working expeditiously to move forward with the rulemakings announced on June 9, 2021, in order to better protect our nation’s vital water resources that support public health, environmental protection, agricultural activity, and economic growth. The agencies remain committed to crafting a durable definition of “waters of the United States” that is informed by diverse perspectives and based on an inclusive foundation.

  • 27 December 2021 - Army Corps of Engineers announces new and revised nationwide permits

    27 December 2021 - Army Corps of Engineers announces new and revised nationwide permits U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published a final rule in the Federal Register that reissues 40 nationwide permits and issues one new nationwide permit for work in wetlands and other waters that are regulated by Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and/or Section 10

  • 2 December 2021 - Water Quality Certifications and Corps Permitting

    On October 21, 2021 the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an order vacating and remanding the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2020 regulations implementing Section 401 of the Clean Water Act.  On November 18, 2021, after a temporary pause on permit decisions reliant on a Section 401 water quality certification or

  • 18 November 2021 - EPA, Army Announce Signing of Proposed Rule to Revise the Definition of Waters of the United States

    On 18 November 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Army (“the agencies”) announced the signing of a proposed rule to revise the definition of “waters of the United States.” This proposal marks a key milestone in the regulatory process announced in June of 2021. The agencies propose to put back into place the

  • 17 November, 2021 – Rescission of the 30 June 2020 NWPR Memo, “EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Process for Elevating and Coordinating Specific Draft Determinations under the Clean Water Act

    After careful consideration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Army have rescinded the memorandum “U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) Process for Elevating and Coordinating Specific Draft Determinations under the Clean Water Act (CWA),” signed by EPA on June 26, 2020

  • 2 November 2021 – Final 2020 National Wetland Plant List

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as part of an interagency effort with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, is announcing the availability of the final 2020 National Wetland Plant List (NWPL). The Federal Register Notice for the

  • 30 July 2021 – EPA and Army Announce Next Steps for Crafting Enduring Definition of Waters of the United States

    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Army (Army) have announced plans for upcoming community engagements to inform their efforts to revise the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). EPA and Army have stated a commitment to developing a reasonable, effective, and durable definition of WOTUS that protects