On April 21, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Army (Army) published the Navigable Waters Protection Rule in the Federal Register to finalize a revised definition of “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act. For the first time, the agencies have streamlined the definition so that it includes four simple categories of jurisdictional waters, provides clear exclusions for many water features that traditionally have not been regulated, and defines terms in the regulatory text that have never been defined before. Congress, in the Clean Water Act, explicitly directed the Agencies to protect “navigable waters.” The Navigable Waters Protection Rule regulates the nation’s navigable waters and the core tributary systems that provide perennial or intermittent flow into them.  This final rule became effective on June 22, 2020. On June 19, 2020, the District Court for the District of Colorado stayed the effective date of the Rule only in the State of Colorado. The rule is being implemented by EPA and the Army in all other states and jurisdictions.

• The Navigable Waters Protection Rule: Definition of "Waters of the United States" (PDF)(93 pp, 739 K)