Clean Water — News & Analysis

New WOTUS rule would strip federal protection from more than half of U.S. wetlands (November 17, 2025)

November 17, 2025 — The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers published a proposed rule to further narrow the definition of "Waters of the United States" (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act, a change that would exclude most wetlands that lack a continuous visible surface connection to a protected waterway — potentially leaving more than half of all U.S. wetlands without federal protection. Administrator Zeldin framed the rule as providing "greater regulatory certainty" for farmers and landowners uncertain about which bodies of water require federal permits.

The proposed rule follows a decade of legal and regulatory turbulence. The Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Sackett v. EPA had already sharply narrowed federal jurisdiction over wetlands and waterways. The Biden administration had attempted to align federal rules with that decision while preserving as many protections as legally possible; the Trump administration's new proposed rule went further, narrowing definitions of key terms including "relatively permanent" water bodies and "continuous surface connection" in ways that would remove millions of additional acres of wetlands from federal protection.

Wetlands provide critical water quality functions: they filter pollutants, absorb floodwaters, recharge groundwater supplies, and act as natural buffers protecting downstream drinking water sources. When wetlands are filled, drained, or polluted without federal oversight, the impacts cascade through entire watersheds. States including California announced plans to expand state-level protections to fill the federal gap, while others — including Tennessee, which amended its Water Quality Control Act during its 2025 legislative session — moved in the opposite direction, reducing state-level wetland oversight in response to the loosening of federal standards.