Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new applicability date for the controversial 2015 Waters of the United States Rule (WOTUS). The new applicability date will take effect two years after the action is published in the Federal Register in the coming weeks, making the new applicability date sometime in early 2020. This latest EPA action follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling from January that settled a question about the rule’s jurisdiction and lifted the stay on the rule that had been in place since late 2017.
Currently, the Trump Administration is working on a rewrite of the 2015 WOTUS rule. The extended applicability date will allow the EPA ample time to finalize a new WOTUS rule more suitable to ready mixed concrete operations, while avoiding implementation of the contentious 2015 rule. NRMCA has submitted comments in support of both the announced applicability date and a new WOTUS rule.
Click here for more information on EPA’s 2015 WOTUS Rule. Click here and here to review EPA’s announcement and pre-publication Federal Register notice. For more information, contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org.
National Ready Mixed Concrete Association