"The Trump administration is faulting its predecessor for overemphasizing science in writing a 2015 Clean Water Act rule aimed at defining what isolated wetlands and waterways deserve automatic federal regulatory protection.

At issue: the Obama-era EPA and Army Corps of Engineers' 400-page review of research on how wetlands and small streams affect downstream rivers, lakes and estuaries.

As it proposes to repeal the Clean Water Rule, or Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS), regulation, the Trump-led agencies say the previous administration gave too much weight to the "Connectivity Report."

"The agencies now believe that they previously placed too much emphasis on the information and conclusions of the Connectivity Report when setting jurisdictional lines in the 2015 Rule, relying on its environmental conclusions in place of interpreting the statutory text and other indicia of Congressional intent to ensure that the agencies' regulations comport with their statutory authority to regulate," the proposed repeal says."

Ariel Wittenberg reports for Greenwire July 3, 2018. [2]