Trump EPA Suspends Clean Water Rule For Two Years, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That Federal Protections Still Reached The Streams And Wetlands That Feed Drinking Water For Roughly One In Three Americans

WASHINGTON. The Environmental Protection Agency confirmed Tuesday that it had formally suspended the 2015 Clean Water Rule for a period of two years, resolving a long-standing concern within the agency that federal protection still reached the small streams and wetlands that feed the drinking water of roughly one in three Americans.

The rule, known formally as Waters of the United States, had been finalized under the previous administration to specify which waterways fall under the protection of the Clean Water Act, a determination the agency had estimated affects the drinking water supplies of some 117 million people. By delaying the rule's applicability date to 2020, officials ensured that the question of which waters the government is permitted to keep clean would remain comfortably unresolved.

The suspension followed an executive order President Trump had signed the previous February directing the agency to reconsider the rule, which he described at the signing as "one of the worst examples of federal regulation" and a measure that "has truly run amok." Administration officials said the order had been received by the EPA as a clear instruction to locate the streams Americans depend on and return them to a state of regulatory ambiguity.

"For years, a farmer or a developer who wanted to fill in a wetland faced the burden of first finding out whether it was protected," said one official within the agency, speaking on condition of anonymity because the goal is to make sure they never find out. "We have removed that burden. Under the new approach, you simply proceed, and any consequences for the watershed downstream are discovered later, by someone else, ideally after the permits have cleared."

Officials confirmed that the two-year pause was intended as a bridge to a permanent replacement rule, finalized in 2020, that would narrow the definition of a protected waterway sufficiently to strip federal oversight from a majority of the nation's wetlands and from streams that flow only after rain. The agency characterized the waters in question as too small, too seasonal, and too directly connected to the public water supply to warrant continued federal attention.

At press time, EPA leadership was reviewing a map of the United States on which every waterway no longer covered by the rule had been shaded a reassuring blue, rendering it indistinguishable from the water that is still clean.