BISMARCK – Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring applauded the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineer’s announcement today of the Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR), which defines Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS). The agencies finalized a repeal of the 2015 WOTUS rule last year.
The NWPR includes four simple categories of jurisdictional waters, provides clear exclusions for many water features that have been in question and defines terms in regulatory text that have never been defined before.
“We appreciate that exclusions are clearly defined and will allow farmers and ranchers to visually see what is and is not jurisdictional, without forcing them to hire consultants,” Goehring said. “No one loves our land and resources more than we do. We drink the water, produce the food and raise our families on the land, with an eye to the future.”
“Unlike the 2015 rule, the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, proposed in 2018, was crafted with better input from stakeholders. States have intimate knowledge of their resources and are much better equipped to understand the specific and unique needs of our people and industries,” Goehring said. “We welcome the clarity and predictability that this rule will provide for states and landowners.”
For more on the NWPR, go to https://www.epa.gov/nwpr/navigable-waters-protection-rule-step-two-revise.