The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking additional public comments as it tries to redefine the scope of the nation’s bedrock clean water law to significantly limit the wetlands it covers.
The request, announced Friday, comes nearly a year after the agency proposed a rule defining "waters of the United States," or WOTUS, based on a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that removed federal protections for vast areas. The plea for new information is highly unusual and reflects the complexity of the water rule, a contentious regulation that has been argued in the courts for decades and reached the Supreme Court twice since 2006.
