Reuters: EPA Ready to Introduce Clean Water Rule

Reuters quoted American Farm Bureau Federation’s Don Parrish, senior director of regulatory relations, in an article about the Trump administration’s new clean water rule, which the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce on Tuesday, Dec. 11. “Part of our problem with the 2015 rule was nobody knew how to interpret it, it was so broad and overreaching,” Parrish told Reuters. “We think a better rule is one that defines clearly (waterways) but yet give the farmers the opportunity to understand how to comply,” he said. The EPA will propose changing the definition of what qualifies as “Waters of the United States” under the regulation to remove streams that flow only after rain and wetlands unconnected to larger waterways, according to Reuters.