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The Environmental Protection Agency released new federal clean-water regulations Thursday that are less restrictive than those adopted under the Obama administration, removing many seasonal streams, small waterways and wetlands from federal oversight. Lobbying groups that represent U.S. businesses, farmers and landowners said the new rule will end a period of confusion for property owners who have complained about having to apply for federal permits to do work near smaller waterways. (Ferek and Puko, 1/23)

The move delivers a major win for the agriculture, homebuilding, mining, and oil and gas industries, which have for decades sought to shrink the scope of the water law that requires them to obtain permits to discharge pollution into waterways or fill in wetlands, and imposes fines for oil spills into protected waterways. (Snider, 1/23)

The changes to the Clean Water Act’s protections are expected to hit California and other Western states especially hard. Federal data suggest 81% of streams in the Southwest would lose long-held protections, including tributaries to major waterways that millions of people rely on for drinking water. (Phillips, 1/23)

According to Environmental Protection Agency estimates made under the Obama administration, well over half of all streams in the U.S. flow seasonally, or only after rain — and yet they have a significant impact on downstream waters. These were among the water sources that the new rules were designed to protect. Speaking to The New York Times, Blan Holman, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, called the move “the biggest loss of clean water protection” ever seen in the United States. “This puts drinking water for millions of Americans at risk of contamination from unregulated pollution.” Holman added that the Trump’s tack did more than reverse rulemaking made under his immediate predecessor. “This is stripping away protections that were put in place in the ’70s and ’80s that Americans have relied on for their health,” Holman told The Times. (Zeller, 1/24)

In a move designed to help business interests, the Trump administration on Thursday announced a new rule to reduce federal protections under the Clean Water Act. The Navigable Waters Protection Rule sets a "new, clear definition for waters of the United States” that "protects the nation’s navigable waters from pollution and will result in economic growth across the country," said Andrew Wheeler, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (Smith, 1/23)

Dozens of government computers sit in a nondescript building [in Kansas City], able to connect to a data model that could help farmers manage the impact of a changing climate on their crops. But no one in this federal agency would know how to access the model, or, if they did, what to do with the data. That’s because the ambitious federal researcher who created it in Washington quit rather than move when the Agriculture Department relocated his agency to an office park [in Kansas City] last fall. (Gowen, Eilperin, Guarino and Tran, 1/23)