The supplemental proposal builds on the agencies’ 2025 proposed rule and is intended to produce a final WOTUS definition that fully implements the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Sackett v. EPA. Once published in the Federal Register, the new comment window will remain open for 30 days.
Agencies Press for a Durable WOTUS Definition
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin framed the supplemental notice as part of a broader effort to end decades of regulatory whiplash over which waters fall under federal jurisdiction. “The EPA’s goal is a durable WOTUS definition that follows the law and ends burdensome regulatory uncertainty,” Zeldin said. “Today’s action reflects our continued commitment to transparency and public input, ensuring we have fully considered a wide range of potential policy options.”
The WOTUS definition determines where federal permits are required under Clean Water Act programs, including Section 404 dredge-and-fill permitting administered by the Army Corps of Engineers. Waters outside federal jurisdiction remain subject to state, Tribal, and local regulation — a framework the agencies emphasized as consistent with the Clean Water Act’s cooperative federalism design.
Sackett Decision Drives the Rewrite
The Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Sackett v. EPA narrowed the federal government’s authority over wetlands and tributaries, requiring a “relatively permanent” connection to navigable waters. The decision upended prior WOTUS definitions and forced EPA and the Army to rewrite regulations that had been litigated across multiple administrations.
Adam Telle, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, tied the supplemental rule to the Army’s “Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork” initiative and to President Trump’s broader deregulatory agenda. “The Supreme Court’s Sackett decision delivered the certainty our nation has been seeking for decades, and today we are taking one more step to ensure our regulations adhere to that decision,” Telle said. He added that the Army Corps “stands ready to implement this rule once final, using technology like never before, to give Americans answers from their government at Trump Speed.”
Telle said the agencies are working to produce “an even more straightforward articulation of federal jurisdiction under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act,” aimed at landowners, farmers, sportsmen, conservationists, and businesses seeking clarity on permit requirements.
Public Engagement and Comment Volume
The supplemental notice is the latest step in an extended public engagement process. Before issuing the 2025 proposed rule, EPA and the Army opened a public recommendations docket, hosted listening sessions, and conducted pre-proposal consultations with Tribes, states, and local governments.
The agencies then held three public meetings and accepted comments for a 45-day period that closed January 5. That window generated more than 220,000 comments from stakeholders across agriculture, energy, development, conservation, and industry.
The supplemental proposal covers a limited number of new regulatory alternatives to be weighed alongside those in the 2025 proposed rule. The agencies said they will consider stakeholder perspectives without foreclosing options from the initial proposal or predetermining the outcome of the final rule.
Stakeholders and Economic Implications
The final rule is expected to affect a wide range of sectors. EPA and the Army identified landowners, farmers, ranchers, energy producers, the technology sector, developers, and small businesses as groups that would gain greater predictability from a finalized definition.
The rule is also positioned within EPA’s Powering the Great American Comeback initiative, which links environmental regulation to broader economic and infrastructure goals. The agencies said the WOTUS rewrite will protect water resources while strengthening cooperative federalism — the principle that states and Tribes are best positioned to manage water bodies that fall outside federal jurisdiction.
For sectors that depend on Section 404 permits, including infrastructure developers and energy companies, a narrower WOTUS definition could reduce the number of projects requiring federal review. Environmental groups have previously warned that a constrained definition could leave wetlands and intermittent streams without consistent federal protection, shifting oversight burdens to states with uneven regulatory capacity.
What Happens Next
Once the supplemental notice appears in the Federal Register, the 30-day comment clock begins. EPA and the Army will review submissions alongside the more than 220,000 comments already received on the 2025 proposed rule. The agencies have not announced a target date for the final rule, but the supplemental step signals that regulators are still weighing competing definitions of federal jurisdiction before locking in a final text.
Watch for how the agencies reconcile the new alternatives with the 2025 proposal, whether environmental and conservation groups mount legal challenges to the final rule, and how states and Tribes respond to any shift in regulatory authority over wetlands and tributaries. The final WOTUS definition will set permit requirements for years to come and is likely to face the same courtroom scrutiny that has followed every prior version of the rule.
— Sofia Alvarez, government desk, AXO News