Following a Proposed Repeal of the 2015 Clean Water Rule, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corp of Engineers issued a Supplemental Notice in July 2018 regarding the Proposed Repeal. We previously submitted comments to the agencies on the Proposed Repeal explaining that the economic analysis accompanying that Proposed Repeal was fundamentally flawed. In this notice, the agencies state that they are “not relying” on that economic analysis.
In our comments on the supplemental notice, we explain that not relying on that flawed analysis does not salvage the agencies’ proposal. Protecting wetlands was a substantial benefit of the 2015 Clean Water Rule, and losing that benefit remains an important cost of the Proposed Repeal, which must be addressed. As the agencies have not provided an adequate explanation for forgoing the benefits of the Clean Water Rule, the Proposed Repeal is arbitrary and capricious.