CA Tightens Water Regulations Amid New EPA Rule

The EPA has proposed a new regulation over clean waters that would limit the waterways that fall under federal protection and roll back Obama-era rules. The announcement has come has California’s Water Board is releasing a much stricter guideline, intended to close regulatory loopholes. The EPA’s proposal could fast-track the state-level regulation.

“EPA’s proposal comes just as the Water Board is rolling out its own program for final adoption,” Clark Morrison, a partner at Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP, tells GlobeSt.com. “Unfortunately, the State’s program has serious flaws, and the new EPA proposal has put the State’s program on a fast-track for approval with almost no additional public review. At a time when the State is facing a serious housing crisis, this rush to judgment may be highly unproductive.”

California’s water rule has been in the works for a decade, but has faced challenges. “California’s State Water Board has been working on a new wetlands program for the last ten years, with fierce opposition from industry,” says Morrison. “Although originally conceived as a stopgap for certain limited regulatory loopholes created by the Supreme Court, the Water Board’s proposal has morphed into a full-fledged regulatory program with teeth far sharper than those of even Obama’s Clean Water rule.”