President Trump announced a plan to roll back Obama-era clean water regulations that aimed to protect rivers and streams from agricultural runoff and other pollutants. It will remove vast wetlands and thousands of miles of waterways from federal protection.
Trump campaigned on a promise to overturn the Waters of the United States rule, claiming it was a major imposition on farmers and other rural landowners.
WOTUS extended federal oversight to smaller bodies of water than those already covered by the Clean Water Act, limiting what pesticides farmers with land that abutted tributaries and streams could use and what crops they could grow. Trump often asserted in his campaign that WOTUS amounted to an abuse of federal power at the expense of farmers, though the issue remained a low priority for many farm groups.
The announcement was met with frustration from environmental groups.
“Even a child understands that small streams flow into large streams and lakes — which provide drinking water for so many Americans,” said Craig Cox, senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources at the Environmental Working Group. “By removing safeguards and allowing industry to dump pollutants into these water sources, Trump’s EPA is ensuring more contamination challenges for utilities and dirtier water for their customers.”
“You need to protect wetlands if you want to have clean water,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “This isn’t a regulatory rollback — it’s a steamroller to the environmental oversight we need to protect our waterways. Piece by piece, molecule by molecule, Trump is handing over our country to corporate polluters and other industrial interests at the expense of our future.”
But the announcement was celebrated by lawmakers and farm groups that have pushed for the rollback since Trump’s election.
“Clear rules and clean water — that’s what the EPA should stand for, and today’s announcement marks a hopeful new chapter for farm country,” said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway. “The Trump administration’s proposed definition of ‘waters of the U.S.’ is the next step to replacing the burdensome 2015 WOTUS rule and to creating streamlined and simplified rules for all landowners.”
Trump first ordered the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to replace WOTUS in February 2017.